Life With the Lions
by tilinelson2
Summary: A story exploring Anna's mysterious past. It focuses on the period of Anna's life as a hunter and then as a counter-hunter.
1. Hunting Girl

"Are you sure you want to be relieved from your duties?" Colonel Numar had a tone of disappointment in his voice.

The blond girl simply nodded. Her eyes were ecstatic and, though she seemed cold, her eyes betrayed a tortured existence.

"Well, Anna, sorry to see you go. You were such a promising officer." The officer signed the papers that would discharge Anna from her position on military. "Do you have any plans for the future?"

Anna just shook her head negatively, while taking the papers from the commander hands. "I just want to get out of this hell..." She stood up and left the room, without saying anything else. The loud cracking of the guns was still ringing on her head. The images of the heads of her companions bursting, with blood and brain being splattered on the floor insisted in returning to the poor girl's mind.

_"Poor Anna! I wish she could stay, but... I can understand her. She didn't deserve that. Oh, no, she didn't..."_ The officer shook his head in silence, while returning Anna's record to the file.

Anna returned to her room for the last time. She was there to retrieve her belongings. It was time to restart her life from the scratch again. Those dormitories, which had been her safe haven for the last 2 years were now a place she couldn't face anymore. She could not help looking at the bed on her side; there was always the sweet smile of Lizzie, her best friend, over there. The smile that would be no more. Those lovely buckteeth, that sweet air of innocence. Those shiny honey eyes, either there, in that not particularly pretty, but lovely face; or out of her eye sockets, with her head destroyed, fragments of her skull and brain splattered on the cement, floating in a small pool of blood; they would always be there in her mind. The last image of Lizzie was stuck in her mind. She couldn't stop remembering the despair in her face instants before the scoundrels blew her brains out of her head. Anna had to watch her best friend's death, powerless to stop the scoundrels. Memories of that tragic night would remain forever in her mind, as a recurring nightmare. Lizzie, Richard, Captain Stevens... their heads being blown, their lifeless expressions of horror imprinted in their faces, the fear, the shock, the deafening crack of the shotguns, the laughter afterwards... Anna wished she had been killed that night, together with her three friends.

But fate would not let her give up her tragic life that day, so she was there, again, packing her things to hit the road once more, as if she was doomed to repeat it over and over every time she started loving people and building solid friendships. She couldn't take anymore from the military life. First Lieutenant Anna Zirski, a prodigious fifteen, attained a rank that no one under twenty would ever attain. In fact, she shouldn't be allowed to enroll the academy before her sixteenth birthday, but fate allowed the most talented slasher trainee the military academy has ever seen to be commanding missions very early in her life. The last mission, though, proved to be too much for her, and her brilliant career was cut short before it should have started. Now she was only a homeless girl, with a broken mind, trying to survive by herself, secretly wishing she would die. She left her dormitory and the academy, hoping that someday she would be allowed to live a day free of the terrifying images and sounds that were stuck in her mind. They made her wish for death, though she feared they'd be imprinted in her soul, so she would be seeing the same terrifying images and be listening to the same terrifying sounds for the whole eternity. If her God were merciful, He'd send her to hell instead.

* * *

><p>Days before, still in shock, she had been to Lizzie's and Richard's funeral and the experience was so terrible that from that day on, she decided the best thing for her was to shun from people contact. To hear Lizzie's mother desperate cries of sorrow and pain while sobbing over her son and daughter caskets was enough to assure Anna that she should never have children. What was the use of enduring the pains of pregnancy and labor, to sacrifice her hours of sleep, to sacrifice her wills and wishes, to dedicate all her life and love to her sons and having them returned as inanimate masses of flesh, whose existence was terminated by strangers who valued their lives less than a trash?<p>

Everything that woman had now were two cold corpses ready to be buried. Lizzie's corpse was so disfigured by injures that her casket was sealed. Her mother could not even look at her face once more. Anyway, being able to see Richard's face had not practical use, as he was there no more. Anna had seen both the last moment of Lizzie's life and her face after she died, but it only made her suffer more.

Although she was still in shock, Anna noticed an officer who was somewhat familiar to her attending the funeral. The man wore his best suit and tried to keep a dignified pose, though Anna could notice deep sorrow in his green eyes. She stayed staring at the man until he noticed her stare. She saw in his eyes some madness that made her immediately remember who he was. He was the officer who abused Lizzie. Anna was baffled that the man had the audacity of attending the funeral of the girl whose innocence he had stolen. The man started walking towards her with a furious stare, making Anna shiver.

"So you let my love be killed, coward!" His tone was very low, but his voice was filled with anger.

"What?" Anna was shocked by the officer's impertinence. Not only he still referred Lizzie as his love but he also accused Anna of letting Lizzie be murdered. Of course, she blamed herself for being unable to do anything to anything to prevent Lizzie's death, but it hurt to be accused of doing that. "I didn't…"

"Of course you did!" The man interrupted the blonde guardian harshly. "Now you have ruined my life. I'll never have my beloved Lizzie in my arms again. I'll never taste the love of the only woman I'll ever love. There will never be anyone like Lizzie and I'll be condemned to a life of loneliness."

Anna felt insulted by the officer's words, but what made her feel worse was that the man seemed to mean exactly what he was just saying. How could the rascal really believe that what he had done to Lizzie was right? Anna could never forget how Lizzie arrived at her dormitory after the first time she was raped. The girl had her soul crushed, sadness, fear, shame, anger and despair in her eyes, her mind clouded by pain and suffering. Anna didn't know what happened after that and feared her friend's submissive behavior made her accept the rape as part of the courting process, as Lizzie once told Anna that she had to marry the man who had raped her, but the blonde guardian loathed the man and could not see any redeeming qualities on him. She answered loud enough to be heard by the other people present.

"You are disgusting. How do you dare to talk about love when you raped Lizzie, you rascal? I have seen with my eyes the way she arrived at the dormitory after you abused her! I have seen her tears, her fear, her pains, her despair, her sadness, her anger, her disgust, and her shame. I have comforted her, I have dried her tears, I have heard her lament. I stood by her and tried to help her." Anna was so angry that she closed her eyes and clinched her fists. "I have seen her blood stained in her dress!" She stood up and confronted the officer, shouting. "You raped an innocent woman and you still dare to claim you loved her? If I were with my slashers here, now you would be filling one of the caskets!"

The quarrel attracted the attention of people attending the funeral. Lizzie and Richard's father walked towards Anna and the officer, furious, and interrupted the quarrel. "What do you think you are doing? Can't you show a bit of respect for the memory of my sons?"

"This woman is mad." The officer said so keeping an air of superiority.

"Mad?" Anna was baffled. "Mad? This man raped you daughter and dared to show up in her funeral! How can you accept his presence here?" Anna barked back. She was so furious that her mouth was foaming.

Lizzie's father seemed shocked and confused. "What are you saying, girl? This man was Lizzie's fiancé! Why are you saying he raped her? Who are you by the way?"

Anna was stunned by Lizzie's father words. She could not believe that Lizzie was engaged with the officer who had raped her. That would explain why Lizzie was so secretive about the letters she used to receive. That would explain some occasional Lizzie disappearances. However, even knowing the submissive character of her best friend, the blonde guardian never imagined Lizzie would so easily submit to the man that had committed an atrocious crime against her. Before Anna could answer, though, the officer started accusing the girl.

"This girl is crazy. I always loved Lizzie with all my heart and she loved me too. She was jealous of my relationship with Lizzie. I think she had a crush on her."

"What?" Anna was speechless. The officer's suggestion was ridiculous.

"What have you done for her, girl? I've never harmed her. I protected her from dangers, I paid Lizzie and Richard's military training, I had already the money to pay for her University, and I would marry her and give her a comfortable and honorable life. What about you? What have you done for Lizzie? Did you help her when she needed you? Why didn't you protect her? Why did you leave her do die, helpless and hopeless? What were you doing when she was being killed?" The officer's tone was inflammatory and Anna noticed some sarcasm.

"Scoundrel! What about the rapes? I've seen with my own eyes, her tears, her blood, her fear, her pain, her despair! Do you think you could buy her with your money, you devil?"

"What?" Lizzie's father was confused. The conflict was escalating and almost everyone attending the funeral circled the quarreling duo.

"Coward! You let her die! How did you survive? Weren't you associated with the rogues?" The officer had a sarcastic smile on his face.

"Rapist! I'll kill you!" Anna lost the control over her anger and she would jump in the officer's throat, had not the other people intervened and dragged her out of the hall. The officer kept accusing her of things she couldn't be blamed for with scorn and she kept yelling that he was a criminal. When she was out of the hall, Lizzie's father ordered her to go away, for she was insulting her daughter's memory.

Left alone, Anna cried abundantly. Cried for Lizzie, as she could not forget all the suffering and pain the poor girl she had endured. She was sure that Lizzie didn't love the man, but accepted him as part of her submissive behavior and old-fashioned values. A girl as kind as Lizzie didn't deserve to receive love as violence and then be treated like a possession. Anna also cried for the entire human race. What were that people thinking? Did they return to the Stone Age where the marriages consisted in a man clubbing the woman he chose for wife and dragging her home? How could they take the abuser of her daughter as a dignified potential husband for her? How could they ignore Anna's accusation and believe in the lies of that scoundrel? No, since she had seen Lizzie be murdered, the images of the atrocious murder had come back to her mind at least a thousand times. Poor Lizzie, had not she died, she would be doomed to a life of sorrow. Anna lost all her faith in humankind and, from that day on, decided avoid any human contact. It was at that moment that she decided to quit the military academy and try to rebuild her life somewhere else, somewhere where she could live her life on her own, somewhere avoid the cruel reality of life. Somewhere she could forget about all those wasted years. She knew she would never forget the things she most wished to forget, but if she could avoid people that would constantly remind her of how the whole humankind was stupid and disgusting, there was a slight possibility that, in the future, she could be able to live free of her own demons, the demons of her past.

* * *

><p>After leaving the military academy for the last time, Anna didn't turn her back to look for the last time to the place she could call home in the last two years. For the third time she had lost everything she had in life; for the third time she would have to take her shattered soul fragments and try to make something out of it. For the third time she had lost all the love she had harvested in her heart. Now she would have to live as a heartless woman or to succumb to her own weakness. Anna wished she were weaker of mind, to go totally crazy or commit suicide. Either way she would erase those terrifying images from her mind. It would be grand to go insane, and then people would point at her and say, "Look at that girl? If you had faced what she had faced, you'd be like her..." But she had no other choice: she was still the same strong woman, with complete control of her own senses and reason. She attributed her resilience to her religion. She still trusted her God. That old God who was forgotten by most Algolians since the Mother Brain's inception. Her God, whose symbol died along with the churches that proudly bore it on its walls in the ancient times all over Palma, Motavia and even Dezoris. The old God that would make her servant carry no cross heavier than she was able to carry. So, in her mind, her life had been that way because she deserved it. And she interpreted the last tragic events as a warning for her to change her life. She only wished that warning had not cost the lives of three innocent and lovely people.<p>

Anna used the money she had got from her work to hire a room in a cheap inn in the outskirts of Zema. She wished to find a calm job in one of the several hotels and touristic attractions in the famous city resort by the lake of the same name. But years of stagnated economy would prove it a hard task. Most of the resorts were lying off their workers, so Anna did not find anything to do besides weekend temporary jobs. She tried to cheer up, despite of all jobs being unexciting things, like cleaning rooms, carrying bags or serving drunk customers on the pubs. She knew that was not a life for a woman like her. She had plans of doing something really useful or interesting of her life, not to waste it entirely working in order to survive and surviving to work.

As the weeks passed, things never got better for her. She started thinking that she was really wasting her life, prolonging her suffering. Maybe starvation would blur the images out of her mind, so she would live in a comfortably numbness. She always thought she had some undiscovered talent that would enable her to help the others, but she had no idea what it could be. Talent for suffering. Talent for keep returning to the same images that terrified her, over and over. She considered her real talent to be torturing herself endlessly. She wanted to try some job that would not put her in situations like the ones the military operations had put her. She didn't want to see more suffering, more deaths. She wanted to have a peaceful life. But not a dull life. She wanted to help. She'd become a teacher if she had not skipped studies since she was orphaned. Though she learned a lot by herself, it was not enough to become a teacher, so she had to study other options. Other options that would be feasible, not just a teenager's dream. Other options that would help her think in other things other than the tragedies of her own life. Other options that would allow her to reborn as a new woman, free from her past woes and traumas.

But her fate was to change again. After the sudden burst of biomonsters all over Motavia, a new job was created to deal with the constant harassing of the biomonsters. Though the cities were generally well protected, the small villages and the countryside were constantly attacked by biomonsters. The villagers and farmers dealt some of them easily; some of them, however, were too dangerous, causing destruction, injures and even deaths. The Motavian government started hiring ex-soldiers, police officers and other courageous citizens as hunters, whose main task was to eliminate the biomonsters and protect the populace.

At first, Anna was uninterested in any job that meant anything to do with her past military experiences. She still tried to find a civil job, though she didn't have any qualifications for any specific job, but for her military training. After hearing stories of hunters being able to raise a considerable amount of money, Anna started considering taking her chances as a hunter. The job would still require her combat skills, but she wouldn't deal with human opponents. She would have a certain freedom to work, she would have many opportunities to work alone, and she would be able to help people. After much thinking, she decided to enroll for a small job as a hunter.

She learned that hunters were free-lancer jobs. She would have to register herself as a hunter and take assignments at the government offices. The Motavian government regulated the activity, fearing that, if not strict controlled, the hunter jobs would end creating mercenary militia to fight the biomonsters. Having bands of armed man roaming around and fighting for money was too dangerous. They would surely degenerate into crime. So the government wanted to have everybody under their control. For Anna, that was not a problem. In fact, she preferred that way, as she could work whenever she wanted and only choose the missions she considered fit. She wanted to work alone. She wanted to be a loner, a hermit, to avoid connecting with other people. She didn't want to depend on anyone else. Just in case she was to see someone else mercilessly killed in front of her, that it be an unknown person. Though it would still be shocking, it would be nothing compared to the others deaths that she had seen before her eyes.

Her first hunter mission was a simple one. One local farm was attacked by a swarm of large scorpions, leaving its inhabitants and workers under siege. Anna was unsure of what she would find in the farm. However, she had already seen scorpions before and she was cold-blooded enough to not panic at the sight of large insects, rumors said that biomonsters were nothing like anything she had ever seen. The girl knew that the civilian reports were largely exaggerated. The stupid and lazy people she knew were a bunch of gossipers and rumormongers that would compete in trying to come up with the biggest lie to tell the others. They'd certainly say that they have found a cockroach large as a dog just to show up. But even her fellow hunters admitted that biomonsters were fairly more dangerous than common insects. Before going to face the scorpions, Anna tried to gather some information at the hunter´s office, chatting with some fellow hunters, but she didn't get useful information, as she harshly demanded the information from the other hunters. She was trying to avoid connecting with other people, for all her past connections ended in tragedy, suffering and trauma. She could never forget the image of her beloved parents, brother and sisters murdered. She could never forget the image of her friends being mercifully executed before her eyes.

By that time, she had already built the hardened shell that would be her most striking trace of personality: she was still a good, compassionate and warm-hearted girl deep inside, but she would not let her emotions be known in any case. Her shell also helped her to not be emotionally abused, as, all in all, she was just a sixteen-year-old teenager, with typical teenage dreams, dangerous hormonal levels and a very attractive look. Her angel face and perfect-shaped body only attracted unwanted attention. Attention she loathed. After losing all her loved ones, she preferred to be left alone. Any relationship she had with the fellow hunters was completely professional. She would cut short any conversation that tried to slip into personal territories. The little information she could gather with that impersonal relationships was very poor. Most of the times, people would not even look at her face. They would ignore her. They made her feel as if she didn't exist. It was an awkward feeling, but deep inside she wished to be dead. To be free from her woes and pains. With no help, she had to face the biomonsters almost clueless.

She bought two cheap boomerangs, the poor-man option for her weapon of choice, the dangerous slashers, and set out for the farm. Arriving there, she found some weird kitten-sized scorpions roaming in the fields surrounding the main house. She was somewhat scared at first because she was dealing with unconventional foes. For a time, she wished she had specialized in fighting with long-range firearms, so she could dispatch easily the scorpions, at safety. Though, after the first successful attack, which sliced perfectly the scorpion in two, the girl became grew more confident. The scorpions, fast as they were, could not match the agility of the girl with her boomerangs. With a cautious approach, the girl managed to dispatch all the visible scorpions that were roaming in the fields, though it took her some hours in the task.

After dispatching the roaming scorpions, she had to hunt the hidden ones. There were some scorpions hidden on the barn and on the basement of the main house. She proceeded carefully to the barn, opened its door, and, with the help of a small pocket flashlight, bravely faced the threat. The noise of the scorpions running over the straws on the floor were maddening, but Anna didn't panic, even frightened as she was. The dark battlefield presented an extra difficulty for the girl, as she had to use one of her hands to hold the flashlight, halving her attack power. Even so, she tried to keep cool and build a strategy. At the sound of the first scorpion running towards her, she didn´t hesitate and managed to score a crippling blow on the scorpion, which was left to die, bleeding of its wounds. The second attack was much more dangerous, as one of the scorpions fell from the second floor right on her face. Anna panicked for some seconds, dropping the flashlight and trying to push the scorpion away from her face. The scorpion tried to sting her with its tail, but, for her luck, she unintentionally grabbed its tail while trying to pull it from her face. The struggle lasted for some seconds, but the girl´s strength was enough to free herself from the dangerous grab. She threw the scorpion full-force on the floor, stunning it. Then, she didn't lose time to use her boomerang to decapitate the scorpion. Her face was bruised by the scorpion claws, but she was not seriously injured and she avoided being poisoned, which would be the worst outcome of a scorpion attack.

Anna changed her approach for a more careful one. She retrieved her flashlight and started searching every corner for other scorpions, but she was starting to panic. She was not afraid of the scorpions anymore. She was afraid of scoundrels, which existed only in her mind. Scoundrels that would ambush and execute all her loved ones. Scoundrels that would kill her loved ones while laughing. She had no loved ones to fear of anymore, but, even so, she feared. She feared so much that she started retreating, embracing her boomerang and flashlight, not paying attention to anything else, but her own terror. While walking backwards, she was startled by hitting something and tumbling over it.

She fell on the floor, losing hold of both her boomerang and her flashlight. She couldn't see anything, but she was sure about what she had tumbled over. It was a scorpion. Panic stricken, she tried to kick the scorpion, but she felt a sharp pain in her right leg. The scorpion had stung her. She kept trying to kick the scorpion, while the scorpion repeatedly stung her legs. Not being able to endure the pain anymore, Anna desperately tried to grab the scorpion, but she only managed to have her arm stung by the scorpion's tail. She pulled her arm violently, pulling the scorpion with her arm. Seeing the opportunity, she grabbed the tail of the scorpion and started hitting its head on the ground. The scorpion grabbed her right breast with its claw, making her immediately release the grab on it. The pain was terrible, the girl was about to lose her senses. Her head swoon; she was passing out and started rolling on her side. It was the end. The stupid girl would be killed by a mere scorpion, a stupid insect smaller than a kitten. Her death would not be tragic as her parents' death or heroic like Lizzie and Richard deaths. She would die in a pathetic way. A fool, wretched woman, who dreamed of helping people while she could not even take care of herself. She had not been able to do anything to help her father, her mother, Ivan, Tatyana, Natasha, Lizzie, Richard, Stevens. She was not able to get rid of a dozen scorpions. She deserved to die a pathetic death and her existence be forgotten...

The involuntary movement made her roll her body over the scorpion, causing it to release its grab on her. Regaining her senses. She grabbed the scorpion's tail once again and started hitting its head on the floor. The scorpion was dead much before she realized it, as she was mad with it and mad with herself at the same time. She only stopped when the force of the blows caused the tail to be split from the rest of the scorpion's body. She stayed holding for a while the scorpion tail and then threw it away. She could feel the warm blood running out of her legs, arm and chest. The pain was too much to endure. The venom was already acting over her brain. She didn't have much time left. She would die, pathetically, in a barn, stung by a scorpion. Her body would be found rotten days later, when the farm owners realized the hired hunter had not accomplished her task and hired another hunter to deal with the remaining scorpions. She would be nothing, but a memory. As no one really cared for her, she would not be a memory for too long. Soon she would be nothing. Images of her family and friends being murdered returned to her mind once more, but this time she laughed aloud, a sadistic laughter. She was hallucinating. _"Come! Come once more! Once more! Ha ha ha, I don't care! I don't care for you anymore! You can't scare me anymore! I'm dying! You can keep on coming! I'm dying! In some seconds, you will not be able to scare me anymore! I'll be free! Free! Oh, my God, I'll be free!"_


	2. At the Gates of Eden

The blonde guardian opened her eyes. A faint light could be seen through her blurred vision. For an instant, she could not feel anything. She had died; she was sure about it. As the images started focusing, the girl's eyes were flooded with a dark brown blot. Certainly, she was not in heaven. She couldn't hear any distinct sound and, as her mind started regaining awareness of what her senses indicated, she could feel that the temperature was cool, so it didn't look like hell either. As the images fixed in her iris, she distinguished some shapes in the dark brown blot: they were pieces of wood. As the forms became clearer, Anna was surprised to see wood as part of the ceiling structure. Most of the buildings were made of light metals, steel, plastic and carbon polymers. It should a place in the afterlife, a church perhaps. Anna didn't know where she was, but as her senses sharpened slowly, it didn't surprise her. She considered it part of the dying process. Yes, it was expected that she would take some time to recover the conscience after passing away. But now she was feeling better, she could even feel the straw in her hands, despite of the overall numbness of her mind.

Straw? The blonde guardian was startled. So she was still in the barn. Now the past images came back to her mind. She was in the same barn where she was killed. Maybe she would be trapped there for all the eternity, to remember the shame of being killed by a mere scorpion. That would be worse than being sent to the hypothetical hell, given such a thing really existed. She started wondering what had happened to her body now that she was dead. But wait, how could she feel the straw in her hands? Was it an illusion?

No. She was alive. The numbness gave place to a small moment of lucidity and Anna felt strong pains all over her body, especially on her legs and in the breast that had been injured by the scorpion. She was still alive and she was still lying in the place she had fallen before. The pain was very strong and her mind was not completely clear, but she had to get out of there. She remembered the injuries caused by the scorpions and, if there were scorpions still lurking around, she was powerless to protect herself from a probable fatal attack. It was already a miracle that she was still alive; she should not lose the opportunity to try to rebuild her life once again. It was ironic how she wanted to die before and how she fought against death when it came near her. Even the image of Lizzie's head being blown up didn't scare her much. She tried to lift her head in order to examine her leg. The image was repulsive; her legs were covered by clotted blood. The wounds looked even worse, infected with pus or even gangrene. Anna couldn't guess what was happening to her, but before she could inspect better her wounds, her head swoon, she heard a loud hum inside her ears and things became black again…

The guardian opened her eyes. The images were not clear; she could see just a dark brown blot. Was it just a dream? Was she dead or alive? It was a most important question; if she was dead, she could let the numbness possess her mind, as she had all the eternity to understand what was happening to her. On the other hand, if she was alive, she had to do something if she expected to survive. Anna was still unsure why she wanted so much to survive, but she didn't want to die that way. Maybe it was pride; it would be a shame to die from a scorpion bite. Maybe it was her ego screaming inside her mind that she could not die so that she would be forgotten immediately; she had to do something that would keep her memory alive, be it for people close to her or to strangers. Probably that was the reason why so many women still had the same old dream of being mothers, despite the Palmian society being thousands of years ahead of the old paternalistic society where women were nothing but a shadow of their husbands and the only purpose of their lives was to bear children. Only by bearing children, they would avoid being old maiden aunts, just nuisances for their family, whose deaths people would celebrate, whose memories would be forgotten in less than a week after their deaths. Not that Anna ruled out being a mother one day, but that would be hardly her biggest dream. Palmian women were mostly strong and independent and so was Anna. She wanted to live because she still believed she could redeem herself from her past errors.

As her senses became sharper, she realized she had just passed out one more time. The strong pain returned, making her remember the whole ordeal with the scorpions. This time, though, Anna tried to prevent blackening out again, so she waited for some minutes before trying to get up. The wait proved to be almost unbearable to the otherwise cold blonde guardian; for the pain was too strong and she had the feeling that her leg wounds were rotting. Trying to think rationally, she realized that waiting for some minutes would be less harmful than blackening out again. While waiting, Anna wondered how she was still alive after being poisoned. She concluded that the providence was always acting in a way to make her suffer the most from each situation, without giving her the benefit of finally attaining the eternal peace.

When she was feeling stronger, she started raising her head and back slowly from the floor. She was feeling very weak, but this time she was able to keep her conscience. Anna took a good look at her; she must have bled a lot, given the quantity of clotted blood scattered on the floor. She didn't know it at the time, but the bleeding saved her life because it made most of the scorpion venom leave her body. The wounds were closed, but they didn't look good. If Anna expected to survive, she would need to get out of that barn and seek help.

Anna lifted her body a little bit, assuming a seated position. She observed her surroundings and there were no signs of scorpions, except for the three carcasses of the scorpions she had killed the night before. That would explain why she was not killed while she was unconscious. The awareness of that situation made Anna think of how unlucky she had been; had she not tripped over the last scorpion, she would probably be safe at her home, enjoying the few meseta she would receive for the mission. But not, she was there, struggling for her life, because of one damned scorpion. Probably the providence was doing that on purpose.

She slowly tried to get up, but that would be an inhuman task for her, given her health conditions, so she tried to drag herself towards the barn door, not before taking hold of her boomerang and flashlight, which was still lit. It was very painful for her to move, but staying in the barn would not help her situation, so she had to try. Despite the excruciating pain on her legs and breast, she managed to drag herself for a few feet, leaving a red trail behind her. When she finally reached the barn door, she was shocked by what she had seen outside. There were several scorpions roaming the farm fields again. Anna felt like having a bad nightmare, where the things she had done before had been undone. However, she had no time to stay complaining of what should have been and what should have not been. She had to deal first with the immediate scorpion threat. So, she leaned on the barn door to raise herself a bit from the floor, trying to put herself in a steadier position to throw her boomerangs at the scorpions that had infested the crops again. She was feeling weak and trembling; it was almost impossible to aim steadily at the scorpions, but she had to try. With her right hand shaking, she made a strenuous effort to grab one boomerang and throw it, but the boomerang fell less than two foot away from her. Before Anna could do anything, her vision blurred, she heard a loud hum inside her ears again and collapsed on the ground.

The light, a very strong light, washed the blonde guardian's eyes. She was dead, for sure. Could it be heaven? Was God so merciful that he forgave all her sins? However, why wasn't she in peace? No, it was something warm hitting her face. What could be it? Fires from hell? No, she wouldn't be fooled once again. She was still alive. It was just the sun in her eyes. Her body was still lying on the grass, by the barn's door. No one came to help her. No one cared for her. She was alone in the world. Maybe it would be better to let her be killed, so she would stop being a nuisance. She would not pollute the air anymore; she would not exhaust planetary resources; her useless body would not occupy a place another person may want to occupy. But no, she had to do something. She had to react. She couldn't let the scorpions kill her. She would prove the world she was not a worthless piece of flesh. No, she would show her how capable she was. She would fight. For what, she didn't know yet, but she would have time to decide it later. If nothing, she would fight to prove to herself that she was not just a victim of fate; she would be the ruler of her own destiny. It was a spiritual revelation for Anna; her God was telling her that she should stop playing the blameless victim of fate and start dealing the cards. Not that she was supposed to control every aspect of her life, but she had to be able to control every aspect of her life that depended on her and only on her. If she wanted to be able to fight fifteen opponents and win, it only depended on her. That would be the only way for her to be able to say she had lived her life, so she deserved eternal damnation or salvation. And she would start ruling her own life by finishing her mission, collecting her bounty, and resuming her life as a successful hunter.

Easier said than done, her wounds were so painful that Anna could not even try to drag her body to the boomerang she had pathetically thrown before blackening out. The contact of her leg wounds with the grass felt like a million of razors piercing her skin. Besides, she felt so weak that the minimum effort was enough to make her feel dizzy. This time she knew fainting again would be potentially fatal. Judging by the Algol star position, it was past noon, so she had spent half of the day fainting and waking up. Now it was time to act. After painfully dragging herself to reach her boomerang, she seated on the floor and waited. It was time to use her brain to sort out the situation she had emotionally put herself into. Her hands were still shaking, so she had to wait before she could try to finish the remaining scorpions. After some minutes observing the scorpions, she felt her hand more firm to try a throw, and so she did, using her torso rotation to imprint the strength she needed in the blow. The boomerang missed the scorpion by almost a yard, but at least it returned to her hand.

Anna's hopes of surviving the ordeal were increased and she kept trying to build confidence. A second throw missed the scorpion by a few inches over a foot, making Anna believe she would be able to score a blow soon. The third blow missed the scorpion's head by one inch. The scorpion was scared by the whizzing sound of the boomerang flying close to his head. It decided to give chase to the mysterious animal that tried to attack it and started running towards the blonde guardian. When Anna noticed, the scorpion was running towards her. Her heart stood still for a moment and she almost panicked. Her new resolution, though, made her stood firm. When the scorpion was ready to strike her, she made a rapid movement with her left hand and decapitated it by throwing her second boomerang towards it.

The successful kill had a positive effect on the blonde girl's morale. Now she felt she was still useful and capable of performing her duty as a hunter. Her usual coolness returned. She was ready to become again the vicious fighter she used to be. However, if she became overconfident, that would mean her demise, for she was still in a sad state, almost dying. So, she waited until a good opportunity for dispatching another scorpion presented itself naturally. And this opportunity didn't take long to appear. One of the scorpions started heading to the barn. Anna started wondering if the scorpions were still nested in the barn, leaving for food. It that was the case, she had been very lucky for not being attacked further by the other scorpions while unconscious. That didn't matter much at the present time, so Anna concentrated on the nearing scorpion and waited. When it was close enough for a good hit, she threw the first boomerang, which missed the scorpion by a good margin. She immediately threw her second boomerang and this time she managed to score a hit, severing some of the scorpion's legs. As it did not pose a threat to her anymore, she turned her attention for the other scorpions in the field, certain that the crippled scorpion would eventually bleed to death.

Carefully, Anna dispatched every scorpion, one by one. It took her a long time to do it, and the guardian girl could not ignore her pain and her weakness. Many times, she felt like passing out again, but she knew it would mean her demise, so she used the last of her forces to keep alert and ready. When she finally finished the last scorpion, she felt a huge sense of relief and prayed to her God, thanking him for giving her the opportunity of learning with that situation. Learning by pain was always the hardest way, but at least she had learned something and, according to her beliefs, that put her a bit closer to the salvation she intended to attain. There was no reason to complain about life.

However, it was not over yet. While she was preparing herself to leave, wondering why she would make it through the miles that separated the farm from her house, she reminded that the farm owners complained about the presence of biomonsters in the main house's basement. She panicked for some moments, but then returned to her senses. The temptation to leave the business unfinished was very strong, but Anna was decided to finish that mission or die trying. The sun was almost setting in the horizon, so she tried to run, though the most she could do was to crawl slowly while feeling an excruciating pain in her legs. She wanted to storm the basement before the lights faded out completely, to avoid a dangerous situation like the one she had faced the day before in the barn, which almost cost her life. Besides, she was weakened; both her agility and her precision were seriously compromised. That meant she wouldn't be able to confront the biomonsters directly; she had to take her time and build a strategy.

After crawling for almost a hundred yards, almost passing out from the effort, with tears in her eyes from the unbearable pain, the blonde guardian finally reached the basement door. It was locked from outside, with a chain and a large steel lock. Although most doors had electronic locks, most probably, that door remained unlocked and the farm inhabitants improvised that lock. Anna severed the chain using the sharp blade of her boomerang, sighed deeply and opened the door, praying for the number of biomonsters inside to be low, for she didn't know how much she could still endure without medical care.

Inside the basement, it was already dark, so she turned the flashlight on to take a look inside. Shyly moving her head into the dark room, she was shocked and disgusted by the sight, but at the same time, it has brought her a strong feeling of relief. Rats, cockroaches and other insects had overrun an extremely dirty basement, with piles of rotten food, dirty clothes and other assorted thrash lying on the floor and over the decaying furniture and electronics. The noise of the rats running and cockroaches flying scared by the light of her flashlight was so loud that she was not surprised that the farm inhabitants mistook it for the sound of biomonsters. The smell of the room was putrid and almost made Anna throw up the acidic contents of her already churned stomach.

Before she lost her senses because of the disgusting sight and smell, the blonde girl slammed the door closed and retreated her steps. Finally, she was free. She had accomplished her mission. Just to make sure that would not be further surprises, she checked the barn again, but it was free from scorpions, save from the rotten carcasses of the ones she had killed. It was very painful to look at the big red stains and know they where her own blood spilled on the floor, but she was on the limit of her forces and she still had a long way home. She searched for something she could use as a walking stick and then left the place where she almost lost her life, thanking her God for still having a chance of redeeming herself.


	3. Rebirth

The road back home was not an easy one for the hunter after her maiden hunting mission because she was so weak and battered that it took her many hours to cross the four miles that separated the scorpion-infested farm from her own home. Although walking alone in the countryside, at night, was not very safe for a girl, Anna was not worried about the dangers she could be facing. Not only she had nothing left to lose in the state she was, but also she felt confident enough to deal with the threats on her way.

Her biggest fear was of passing out again and be left to die. As the blonde hunter was used to deal with criminals, she did not consider the outlaws or the vagrants she could meet on her way home a threat. She feared a sudden attack by biomonsters, mainly if she lost her conscience and became unable to defend herself. And she almost passed out many times, forcing her to rest for some minutes every time it happened, making her way home longer and more dangerous.

Nevertheless, the providence hadn't planned any additional tragedies for her life that day. She arrived at Zema's outskirts shortly after midnight. The journey had taken her more than five hours between pauses and careful steps, but finally she had arrived at the safe retreat her room at the modest inn provided her. Despite her appearance, no one asked questions as she entered the inn, mostly because there was no one to see her arriving. As the rooms for monthly rent were detached from the main building, and she had free access to courtyard that led her to her apartment, there was no one to see her or ask her questions, only the other customers. The latter would not care about her state even if they had seen her, for no one really cared about the reclusive and antisocial teenager.

So, Anna, weak, dirty and bloodstained, finally arrived home. She felt an urge to let her body fall on her bed, hoping she would magically feel better when she woke up, but the blonde needed to, at least, wash herself from the dirty and blood, check her wounds, and eat something. Although she was feeling weak and tired, the feeling of the warm water gently touching on her shoulders made her feel assured that she had made the right decision by not skipping the shower. The water seemed to be not only washing the dirty and the blood from her body, but also washing away her suffering, part of her pains and some of her sins. Though it looked like she could stay there forever, her weakness and weariness made her finish her shower as soon as she felt clean enough to go to bed. She put on a light and short nightgown, leaving her main leg wounds exposed. It also left a lot of flesh exposed and that would be something the other customers would like to see, but Anna was feeling so mutilated by the injuries sustained that it would take a real pervert to desire her. If it was not difficult enough for her, now she would have permanent scars all over her body. Although she looked like a cold woman and acted according to her reputation, Anna was a teenager with boiling hormones and a kind heart, so she did care about her appearance and attractiveness. The short dresses she usually wore attracted unwanted attention from men she despised, but she wanted to look attractive to the men she would eventually date and marry. Better, to the only man, as her religion mandated. And it made all the sense. If love was a pure feeling meant to be forever, there would be no reasons for her to have more than one man in her life. But it was not the most important thing back then. At least she was alive. For what, she didn't know yet. But she was alive and it was enough. Enough to allow her to keep on dreaming with love, friendship, peace, a happy life. She didn't yearn for many things in her life. Moreover, she knew it would not be her scars the greatest obstacle to her happiness; her biggest obstacle was her own wicked personality. She was her greatest enemy and she was aware of that.

Anna grabbed some snacks and then lay on her bed, in order to inspect her wounded legs. Upon further scrutiny, they didn't look as bad as she imagined they were when she first inspected them while still in the barn. Certainly, there was some degree of infection because the wounds were swollen and hurt a lot when touched, but there were no traces of gangrene. The infection seemed to be just topic; removing the blood clot crust, cleaning, and dressing them properly probably would be enough. She had no need to hurry for now; she could get a well-deserved rest and then head to the local hospital in the morning. So, considering she had had enough for the last two days, Anna ate some snacks, closed her eyes and soon she was sleeping, trying to forget the real nightmare she had lived in the days before.

Her mind was forgiving to her after such an ordeal. She dreamed with Lizzie, but not with those images that used to torture her. It was just a routine dream, blessed by images of Lizzie's lovely smile. When she woke up, the morning had already advanced close to noon. For an instant, she hoped everything had been just a dream and she would find herself at the academy dormitory, but the pains in her leg brought her to the reality again. She was in her room, resting after the almost fatal first mission as a hunter. Being a hunter was a very dangerous business and Anna learned it by experience. Nevertheless, as she survived the first mission, she had to collect her bounty and get ready for the next mission, after all, hunting was now her job, and she had to hunt if she wanted to survive.

The first step would be going to the local agency to collect the money. Then, she would head to the hospital, to have her wounds treated. She expected to be out of business for a couple of days. She was also determined to be more prudent, getting a less-dangerous mission than the previous one, if there was something easier than hunting down a dozen of large scorpions. At least she was feeling less weak than the day before. So, the girl ate the first edible thing she found in her room, put on a clean dress and left. Anna was still ashamed of being severely injured by just a few scorpions, so she wore a long dress in order to hide her wounds from the other people, while making them easy to reach when she went to the hospital to treat them. Her walk to the local agency took much longer than she expected because of her pain and because she was not used to long dresses, making her walk slowly trying to keep her balance. To her relief, she was not on the verge of blackening out anymore. In her mind, that meant she was on the way to a full recovery.

Arriving at the government agency, the reality proved to be harsher than she had expected. She didn't pay much attention to the reward of the mission because she intended to take it as a training mission. After waiting thirty minutes to talk with one of the clerks and one hour while he confirmed she had accomplished her mission, the clerk came back with two fifty meseta bills.

"That is it, Anna Zirski, your well-deserved money." The clerk had a smile on his face.

"What?" Anna was shocked with the low amount. "Only a hundred meseta?"

The clerk shrugged. He was used to the complaints, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. He was not responsible for determining the reward for each mission; he only handed her the amount stipulated for the job. "Sorry, Ms Zirski, but you knew beforehand how much was the reward for this specific mission. I can't do anything about it."

"Yes, I know. It is just that it is not enough." The blonde hunter tried to hide her frustration from the clerk. "Thanks anyway."

Anna turned back, completely frustrated, holding the meseta bills in rage. She knew that amount was not enough to pay for a treatment at the local hospital. That meant she would have to open her wounds, clean them and dress them properly by herself. Although she had had some first aid training during her military years, she was no specialist. Besides, it is a completely different matter to take care of other people's wounds and take care of your own wounds. However, she had no alternative; that money was not only what she had to treat herself, but it would be almost all the money she would have until she was fit again to take another mission, so she had to save it. It would mean she would also have to ask her proprietor to give her more time to pay the monthly fee. Her situation looked bleak.

But the hunter didn't lose her spirits. She accepted stoically the downturns in her life. Economic problems were just a minor problem compared to what she had already faced in the past. Besides, she had been hardened by the last turn of events; not even the images of Lizzie being murdered scared her that much. She was even able to forget them for short periods. It was the beginning of a new trend in her life, where she would start suffering less than before. Or she would stop caring about the suffering she would still have to face, but it meant life would look less harsh to her eyes than before.

After buying some food and medicine, Anna returned home and tentatively tried to take care of her wounds. As she had correctly guessed, her leg wounds were infected, so she had to open, clean and make a new bandage for them. It was very painful to do it without the proper skills and the nerve required being a doctor, but, after many hours of trials and hesitation, she finally managed to do it. However, the whole process meant more blood loss, making her feel weaker than she already was. That meant she was trapped at home for two weeks, much longer than she had expected. It furthered her problems, as she ran out of food meanwhile, so she had to starve for some days and anticipate her return to hunting before she was completely recovered.

This time, trying to avoid another pathetic outcome, she chose the easiest job, which was to stay on guard somewhere, slaying any eventual biomonster who crossed her path. By doing so, she could place herself in a spot where almost no biomonsters appeared. The only problem of this approach was that she would receive only one meseta for each monster killed. However, she believed she had no choice, as she lacked the medical conditions and the confidence to take part in a more profitable mission. Her restart was very slow and provided her almost no money, as she hardly killed more than five biomonsters each day, but at least she was avoiding the risks she wanted to avoid and had money to buy the cheapest food to fool her stomach while she was too weak to work harder.

In a few weeks, she had recovered completely from her wounds and she grew a bit more confident. Anna started taking what hunters called _Will Hunt for Food_ missions, which paid between twenty and fifty meseta because she needed the money to pay the rent of her room and to buy proper food to keep her healthy. She hesitantly feared a bad outcome in her first missions, but her fears gradually disappeared as she got experience in the job. She grew used to hunting down the less threatening biomonsters, like fire ants, mosquitoes and bees, and soon she moved to somewhat larger biomonsters.

After some months using this careful approach, the blonde hunter had acquired lots of experience in hunting monsters. The unique properties of each biomonster made Anna improve very much her combat skills and develop different strategies to deal with the different groups of biomonsters she had to face. When she was confident enough, she started trying different strategies and even hunting some groups for free, just for the thrill of chasing them and hunting them down successfully. Sometimes she was even a bit reckless while chasing large groups of biomonsters, but she managed to dispatch them without serious injuries. Mostly, she hunted for the sake of hunting, not for the money hunting provided because naturally the money she earned was already enough to her needs. She didn't care about luxuries or superfluous things; almost all the money she earned was spent in food, housing, hunting apparel and a few books to read while she was not hunting, as reading was the only thing she liked to do while not working or practicing her combat skills.

Reading was the only Anna's diversion during her lonely nights. She had no one to talk and she didn't really care about it, as she avoided people on purpose, trying to protect herself from other potential tragedies in her life. People who had to deal with Anna constantly, like the proprietor of the inn she lived in and some of the central agency officers considered her either autistic or a psychopath. But they were wrong, Anna was emphatic to other people and she had a perfect perception of the world. The way she seemed to be absorbed in killing biomonsters and improving her fighting skills seemed to be a bit autistic, but she had reasons for acting that way. First, she knew that, by killing dangerous biomonsters, she was indirectly protecting people from harm, without the need of developing any emotional link to them. Moreover, that was the main purpose of her life: to help people. She considered that helping people was the only way she could redeem herself from her wrongdoings. Even her obsession for improving her fighting skills had a reason; she didn't want to be powerless to prevent new tragedies like the ones she couldn't in the past. The thing she regretted most in her life was being paralyzed with fear while her friends were mercilessly murdered.

Anna was getting used to this solitary life of killing monsters and spending the rest of her time alone that she hardly perceived what was happening in the outside world. She had created a hard shell in her mind where she could hide when anybody tried to interfere in her life. It was not so rare to people try to interfere in her life because men naturally felt attracted to the beautiful blonde teenager. However, her reaction to men's advances was so harsh and cold that hardly anyone insisted. The few ones who dared to try again would later regret insisting because the blonde hunter didn't rule out using violence to stop the harassment. Because of her antics, many people, especially her fellow hunters, shunned her.

This process helped shaping the Anna who Rolf and his companions would meet some years later. By this time, the young hunter had already acquired the remarkable characteristics of her personality that everybody would instantly recognize. She had become a cold and vicious fighter who seemed to care very little about the others, the future or material things. She only wanted to perform her duty, accomplish her missions, and bring justice to people and creatures that were harming the others by her own means, which didn't always mean the legal or ethical means. Arguably, she was living a stable life, day by day, never caring about the future, never dreaming or making great plans. She seemed to be in peace. However, she knew there was a large dormant volcano of love and kindness buried inside her heart and her biggest fear was that a sudden explosive eruption would cause her a great damage, maybe even the complete extinction of her own self.


	4. A Disturbing Reality

As the biomonster outbreak didn't stop and, in fact, increased with the time, the hunters became more and more valued inside Motavian society. The outbreak helped making them more powerful too. Anna was hardly worried about power and money that she didn't even notice that the hunter fees skyrocketed in a few months. These changes, though, disturbed the fragile equilibrium of Motavian society. The government was weak and depended on the nameless hunters who volunteered to fight the biomonsters. However, many armed people with economic power and government's approval roaming around was a big problem to everyone. It took Anna some time to be aware of what was happening among part of the hunters, but the peace was not being disturbed only by the biomonsters anymore.

One day, after taking a hunting mission near a country village some miles away from Zema, Anna ended spending more time than she had predicted before. The mission was not a hard one, but she had to deal with hundreds of locustas. The central agency had listed the mission among the missions fit for groups of hunters, but Anna insisted on taking it alone. She was already known for taking group missions alone and her fellow hunters thought it was because she was greedy. In fact, she could not care less about the money; she took those missions to test her agility and ambush skills. The current one was not an exception, and the high number of locustas provided her room to test her skills for a long time.

Arriving there, Anna realized that the group of locustas was far larger than the amount previously reported, but she knew it didn't represent an extra danger for her. She was accustomed to fight that kind of monster. The opportunity was perfect for her to test her agility and train some ambush techniques. Anna was trying to master the ability of attacking before being noticed by her opponents. It was very hard to be able to surprise biomonsters, which usually had sharper senses than humans did, so Anna had to practice very hard to master the stealth skill. It meant for her that, the more locustas, the better. In the end, she was more pleased than worried with the fact that the group of locustas was larger than she expected.

After spending hours trying different approaches to eliminate small parts of the group, Anna realized that the night was already very advanced, so, as soon as she finished the last members of the biomonster group, she directed herself to the village, looking for the inn where she intended spending the night. She was feeling very tired from exhaustive hunting and she could easily afford a simple room to rest her weary bones before going back to Zema. As she entered the village, she noticed that people were behaving in a strange fashion. Some few passersby seemed to avoid her presence. One woman by the window of one of the houses shut the blinds violently as soon as Anna caught a glimpse of her. Another man, who she had never met before, yelled some bad words at her. People in the pub were suspicious about her presence and stared at her with a threatening look as she crossed the sidewalk in front of it.

Anna was completely at loss about what was happening in that village; she had never been there before and she didn't know anyone who lived there. Why would they treat her so harshly? Could it be possible that someone in the village knew her? But, even so, there would make no sense for everybody hate her and treat her harshly out of nowhere. After all, she had just eliminated a large group of locustas that could have posed a threat to the village if it had moved towards it. Not even the people she treated in a cold manner reacted so harshly at her for nothing. Though perplexed, Anna tried to ignore it and headed to the inn.

Arriving at the small building, Anna noticed that, despite the advanced hour, there was a light turned on, so she climbed the doorsteps and rung the bell. She waited patiently for some minutes, but there was no answer, so she tried again. No answer. Thinking the electronic bell could be broken, she knocked at the door, first lightly and then more vigorously. After some minutes, a man opened a small window near the front gate and shouted at Anna. "Go away! We don't admit hunters here!"

Anna was confused and asked. "Why not?"

"Why not?" The man acted as if her question had been an insult. "You must have a very crooked sense of humor. No one wants you here! Get out of this town!"

The man slammed the window, leaving Anna bewildered. Why were they treating her like that? Just because she was a hunter? Anna was not even considering that they were being unfair to her, who had never done anything wrong to them, but just the fact of the people from that village being openly hostile to hunters was something she could not understand. Usually, people treated the hunters fairly; some even considered them government agents and treated them better than a common citizen. With nothing left to do, the blonde hunter had to walk back home in the middle of the night, feeling very tired, and risking being attacked by roaming monsters. It was not a real problem for Anna, who dispatched all the biomonsters she had found on her way home easily. However, this new fact was something to occupy her thoughts in the gaps her scarred mind provided her without any traumatic event scene being randomly repeated just to torture her.

Anna arrived home just a couple of hours before dawn, but despite the weariness, she couldn't sleep for too long. The hunter was not used to sleep a lot, but that night she could only get a couple of hours of sleep, so affected she was by the last time events. The girl couldn't easily explain why she was so touched by something that she would generally ignore, but that should have something to do with her intuition. That hateful feeling Anna could not understand, but which deeply affected her sometimes, compelling her to do things that had not logical sense. Why should she worry about a small village whose inhabitants rejected her presence when she would never return there anymore? Why should she lose her sleep over a group of people who didn't like the hunters? Maybe she had become too proud of her position as a hunter to accept rejection. Maybe she had grown used to the kindness of the strangers, even when she did nothing to deserve it. Maybe she was more emotive than the usual and the harsh treatment had hurt her. Anyway, regardless of the reason, she was so troubled by what happened that she jumped early from bed and, instead of going to the central agency to collect her reward for the accomplished mission, she paid a visit to the library, aiming to find something that would explain what had just happened to her.

Anna arrived at the building she visited often during her free time, but this time she was not looking for any particular book; she went straight to the terminal to search for news that could explain the villagers' aggressive behavior against her. After some minutes browsing the news, Anna had not found anything relevant. Most of the daily electronic news editions had nothing meaningful, and Anna started to wonder whether her search would be useful. Her first impression was that, judging by the news, people from the village was generally vain and stupid, for most of the news consisted of unimportant and frivolous things. The news editor probably was a delusional wannabe-comedian who filled the pages with futilities, curiosities and absurdities just to hide from the plain truth: nothing happened at the village.

When the blonde hunter was about to give up her search, she noticed some recent news about unsolved crimes in that village. The crimes included blackmailing, beatings, rapes and arson. At first, the officers didn't make any connection between the crimes, but when they became recurrent, even the dumbest investigator would realize there was a gang acting in the village. After a couple of months, the gang was eventually arrested, but something about the gang left Anna stupefied; all the gang members were identified as hunters. It was inadmissible; hunters should protect the citizens, not harm them. Moreover, it explained why the people from that village treated her so badly. Although she knew they were being unfair because they were generalizing all the hunters as evil people, she could understand their behavior; the gang had killed five villagers before the military arrested them.

Reality struck in Anna's mind leaving her disconcerted. Her efforts to avoid people, trying to pretend that nothing of her concern would happen if she didn't connect with people, were completely useless. She was utterly mistaken in her theory. There were people suffering, dying, being treated unfairly all around. There were crimes and atrocities being committed. The fact that she was not aware of them at the time they happened didn't mean they were not happening and it didn't mean she would not be aware of them later, making her suffer. It was exactly what was just happening.

No, she was being a failure as a hunter, a protector of people. She had to participate, to pay attention to what was happening outside her shell. She could have prevented those deaths, had she known the situation at that time. Although she was not a military anymore, she still had her oath of protecting people and justice fresh in her mind, and trying to live outside of the society was not helping her in her intent. She had become an egoistic loner, thinking only about her well-being. She had become one of those lazy people she loathed, those people who, since the advent of the Mother Brain, had become parasites of the society, doing nothing, caring about nothing else other than their own interests. One of those hateful people who see the world crumbling outside their window and shrug off, as long as his little own world remains unaffected. One of those cynical people who consider themselves good, but pay no heed to the suffering of the others. A good person will not stay impassive to another's suffering. The world had too many hypocrites who see a hungry homeless on TV and say someone should do something about them, but who yell at the hungry homeless who disturbs their peace to ask for food. Anna didn't want to be another one. It was time for another change. Although she was not willing to become extroverted and friendly to everyone she meet, she would at least keep a wary eye on what was happening outside, ready to act when needed.

After her resolution, her life didn't change considerably in the subsequent days. Anna was still hunting biomonsters and leading a quiet and lonely life. Although she was paying attention to what was happening by reading the news and listening to other people's talking, nothing seemed to be happening apart from the already unusual biomonster outbreak. Occasionally, she would hear some people complaining about some bossy hunters, who started acting like authorities and even committing some misdemeanors, usually related to abuse of power, but she had never seen anything.

However, as the time passed, the complaints started to increase. By following the news, Anna learned that the criminality was widespread in the minor villages and small bands of hunters turned into criminal organizations, committing crimes and spreading the terror in those small villages or poor and isolated neighborhoods of the larger towns. Assaults, batteries, rapes and even murders started popping out on the news with a higher frequency, sometimes associated with hunters turned into rogues. The once relatively peaceful Motavia had become a dangerous place to live. Not only the biomonsters kept spreading, overrunning small villages, and forcing people to gather inside the larger cities, but also the government lost the control over the crime. The blonde hunter was deeply worried with the crime escalation and somewhat regretted leaving the military, but she was very busy hunting biomonsters that she didn't have the time to get involved with this new social problem.

One day, though, the problem came to her. While resting in an inn in the outskirts of Piata after a long hunt, Anna heard some faint cries in the distance. Usually she would dismiss it as a drunken guys brawl, but, as the cries didn't stop, she decided to investigate what was happening. Ignoring the fact that she was wearing a nightgown and ready to sleep, she grabbed her boomerangs and left her room in the inn, walking towards the place from where the cries were coming from.

As she walked through the empty streets, the cries became more distinguished and, although she couldn't make sense of what was being said, she was able to distinguish between the angry yells of some men and the desperate cries of what seemed to be a young teenager, given his voice. Her heart started racing madly on her chest; if the situation demanded her action, it would be the first time in months that she would confront humans, and she couldn't help remembering the last time she had confronted human foes. The memories made her feel fear. Fear that the outcome would be the same as the last time. Fear than she would be paralyzed, unable to prevent the death of an innocent.

Anna knew it was a crucial moment in her life; either she would be able to overcome her fears or she would be destined to a tragic future, always tormented by her own ghosts, filled with regret for what could have been, had she been a bit stronger. Moreover, if she failed, all her life had been a waste. She sought to be a soldier, a protector of people. She knew nothing else in her life. And, if she realized she was unable to perform the activities she struggled so hard to excel, her life would have come to a dead end.

This time, though, she was ready and confident about her skills. Be it a group of two or ten foes, she knew she was able to, at least, confront them. There was no reason for hesitation; if she wanted to be able to save whoever was in danger, she had to run. And she started running through the dark alleys, following the direction of the screams. The faceless heroine, creeping from the shadows, taking down the enemies and disappearing in the shadows again. Oh, that would be perfect. It sounded almost romantic, almost epic, like a cartoon superhero. The only difference is that Anna didn't care about living a common life, disguised in a secret identity, secretly longing for recognition, friendships and romance. Anna would be only Anna Zirski, during the day or during the night, under the scorching sun or torrential showers. A heroine for all seasons. Yet, just a common girl, who returned to the most boring and reclusive life when not in action, because she was just a boring and reclusive girl. Yes, it would be perfect.

So why were her legs faltering? Why was she hesitating? Why were her arms shaking? Why was she almost fainting? Why was her own mind betraying her, bringing back a deafening maniacal laughter to her ears, the gruesome images of her best friend's head exploding to her eyes? Why was she always her greatest enemy? The one who would frustrate any high hopes she had developed. The one who would throw all her plans down the gutter. The one who would lead her straight to the greatest horrors no sane person would like to face. She wasn't a masochist, but yet, her mind would always work against her, robbing her strength when she most needed it, making the always stoic and self-controlled vicious fighter become a weak and fragile girl, paralyzed with fear, crying like a baby, unable to act. Like a damsel in distress, waiting from her might prince to come and save her. Or like the girly wife who makes a scandal over a mere bug that crept inside the kitchen. But there was no fearless husband to kill the bug for her. There was no might prince to save her. Whom she was expecting to save her? God? No, he wouldn't do that. Because she knew God was not a magical entity who would close his eyes to her sins when it was convenient to her and bless her with miracles when she most needed it. There would be no escape, but on herself. God had provided her with skills, natural talent and intelligence enough to face that kind of situation; the rest was up to her. It was up to her and she would have to fight against herself, in a struggle much more dangerous than the struggle she would have against her foes.

Fighting with all her forces against the fear that tried to dominate her, Anna finally reached the end of a dark alley, from where she was able to see the scene she had been hearing before. Although her hesitation cost her some seconds, she arrived while the upheaval was still on course. There were four armed men surrounding a boy, who was not older than 15. The boy was lying on the asphalt and pleading for help, while the men threatened him and occasionally punched him. Anna heard part of the discussion from the spot where she was hiding.

"We trusted you, lent you money and you didn't pay us. Yet, we forgave you. You promised us your cousin as a payment, but we have never seen the girl. Yet, we gave you another chance. Now, you tried to betray us. Who is the villain here? Me? Now you will have to pay!" One of the men yelled at the boy and then kicked him in the ribs.

"Ouch! Please, give me a chance! A discount!" The boy begged, while contorted his body, in pain.

"Shut up!" Another man kicked his head and all the four men started beating the boy, who pleaded for help.

"We have already given you many chances, scoundrel! No more chances for you! Yet, I'm feeling generous today and I'll grant your discount. I'll stop torturing you and will give you a bullet in the head to finish your suffering." The man triggered his rifle and aimed at the center of the boy's head.

Anna, who was analyzing the situation, realized that the men were hunters, acting like a gang. For the first time she was facing the situation she had read and heard about sometimes: hunters who turned into criminals. Hidden in the shadows, the hunter was facing a great dilemma while the tragic scene unfolded before her eyes. She was unsure if she should get involved with the crime spree because she knew she would not stop until she was sure every evil hunter had been brought to justice. Her humanity, however, solved the dilemma for her. Her days as a hunter would not last long.

The man who aimed at the boy's head was ready to pull the trigger. He didn't seem moved by what he was about to do. His companions seemed to be used to killing people, so they didn't even look anxious. Only the boy was in shock, with despair evident in his eyes. However, instead of the expected shot, everybody was surprised with a head rolling on the ground and a headless body collapsing, squirting blood like a fountain. The scene stunned the men and it took them some seconds to understand what had happened. The boy was also shocked to see the man who would execute him miraculously decapitated. It was so unexpected that none of the men saw the slasher flying back.

Before the men completely recovered from the shocking scene, a strange presence shook their emotions again. Someone appeared, coming out of the darkness of a non-illuminated alley. The image of the blonde woman holding two slashers, one of them covered with blood, was something they had never anticipated. As their minds were confused, their instincts screamed louder and, in a few moments, all the three men had taken their guns, but they were surprised again. This time, it was the inhuman agility of the girl, who ran, took sudden twists and turns, crouched and jumped, avoiding all the bullets they shot who made them feel desperate. More impressive than that, at the same time, the girl attacked them with her slashers and retrieved them, sometimes intercepting them on the air in another position of their trajectory. Though her aim was not perfect between all those movements, she managed to score some minor blows that hurt them.

The boy, still lying on the floor, watched the action scene unfold amazed. It didn't look real and he questioned if he was dreaming, but it was real. A horrific scream was heard and then one of the hunters fell on the floor, with both legs severed in the ankles. Anna's extensive training against the biomonsters proved to be fruitful; it would take a master of firearms to target her, and the rogue hunters were no genius in shooting. Soon, another man fell, with his right arm severed. The last one, in despair, had a better luck; a chest wound killed him almost instantly.

Terrorized, the boy cringed when Anna finished dealing with the hunters and turned her attention to him. Leaving the remaining hunters bleeding to death, she crouched beside the boy, worried about his state.

"Are you ok?"

"They… they have broken my leg…" The boy's voice was shaking and he could barely speak.

"Do you live near here?" Anna asked harshly, scaring the boy.

"Ye… yeah…" The boy stuttered.

"Don't worry, I'll take you home." Anna caught the boy in her arms and started carrying him away from the confront scene.

The young boy was impressed by her strength because, judging by her looks, she didn't not seem to be strong enough to carry him in her arms with ease. She was a just a teenager, not much older than him. Yet, she fought like a superhero and, had he been a few years younger, he would have seriously considered that possibility. He thanked Anna and asked her some questions, but she ignored them all, saying she was nobody and ordering him to shut his mouth. The boy, who had just had the _privilege_ of watching the unbelievable fighting skills of the girl, decided it was wise to comply with her request and not make her angry, so the rest of the short trip was made in silence.

As Anna arrived at their destination, she rung the bell and waited. A middle-aged woman appeared in the front door and couldn't hide her surprise and confusion in seeing a stranger carrying her son in her arms. Both had bloodstained clothes. The woman immediately called her husband and started asking Anna questions, but the hunter acted as if they were two ghosts. She went straight to the couch, left the injured boy lying there, commented nonchalantly that he should be taken to the hospital and

turned away. The boy's parents were very confused and tried to hold Anna there until she had explained what had happened, but the hunter yelled at them to leave her alone and pushed them out of her way. The couple was left bewildered by the sudden appearance of the blonde teenager, wearing a bloodstained nightgown, carrying their injured son and leaving in the shadows, like a ghost, without saying anything.

The blonde hunter went back to the inn where she had rented a room. Though she was aware she had been unnecessarily rude to the boy's parents, she did so because she wanted to avoid stranger's scrutiny and, above all, being rewarded for her actions. In her mind, she had done nothing else than her duty, which was to protect innocent people from harm. She was certain the boy's parents would not be able to accept her view, so she had to be rude. Besides, she knew that, after an initial shock, the couple would be thankful of having their son alive and they would soon forget her. Moreover, Anna was at ease. For the first time in weeks, she was, in fact, content. She had proven she was still capable of facing great dangers and fighting men. She had proven to herself all her life had not been a waste. As for the hunters, though the thought of leaving the injured ones to die was disturbing, Anna didn't really care, for, in her mind, the outcome was just. They had what they asked for. Had they not turned into crime, they would be alive. In addition, it would also serve as a warning to other criminals that there were people willingly to bring them to justice.

Anna was so satisfied in saving one life that she started feeling instinctively that her days hunting biomonsters were near an end. Although she didn't have made any plans to change jobs, she was certain that hunting criminals and saving people's lives was much more rewarding than hunting biomonsters. Nevertheless, as she had decided not to make any plans for the future, the only plan she had in mind was to wash away the blood from her body and clothes, and get a well-deserved rest for the remainder of the night. She slept happy, assured that, at least for that family, her existence had meant something good. And there was nothing better for her than to know she was still able to live a full life, with professional achievements, personal fulfillment and, as a distant dream, even some happiness.


	5. Just a Common Girl

After killing the hunter gang members, Anna's work as a Hunter seemed to be largely unaffected by the past events. The only difference was that the hunter didn't seem to be much interested in hunting biomonsters as she used to be in the past. However, despite being more interested in fighting criminals than animals, the opportunities for bringing justice to outlaws were very scarce, especially the way she wanted to do it. Her spotless record while on military and her impressive efficiency as a hunter left all the doors open for returning to the military, but she didn't want to. She wanted to act by herself, not following orders, not being constrained by the official justice system. She wanted to act according to her own beliefs of justice, and, by that time, her sense of justice was very, very far from what was acceptable by society standards.

The many months of isolation had a deep impact on her personality, though Anna didn't want to acknowledge it. She had become a very, very selfish person. While most of her actions were motivated by altruistic feelings, she had lost the touch with other people's thoughts and beliefs, so she ended acting according to what she thought to be the right thing, though, many times, it was not necessarily the right thing. Her usual harshness towards everybody who she considered stupid, her _takes no prisoners_ approach were all out of tune with what society expected from her. Yet, she did not care about it or whatever else, given the things didn't upset her, didn't cause her pain, suffering or trauma.

While spending her time focused on herself, fighting biomonsters because she had nothing better to do, the Motavian government started losing the control of the situation. If the biomonster outbreak had previously caused some nuisance and some sparse deaths, now it was so widespread that it affected not only the safety of people who risked roaming outside the cities, but it was also having a negative impact in economy, reducing the trade and forcing people to abandon the small villages. Rogue bands started sacking and pillaging the small cities, forcing even more people to abandon their houses and leaving their things behind. Despite the calamities, the central government on Palma refused sending combat robots to fight the large groups of monsters and did almost nothing to help the fellow planet. It seemed to be a deliberate move by them. They were willingly letting Motavian cities become more and more isolated castles, like in a feudal society.

The consequence of this succession of events is that the Motavian government, powerless to deal with the monsters threat, abandoned the smaller cities to their fate. The small cities and the rural areas outside the automated production bio-domes where declared no-man lands and the government focused its resources on protecting the large cities, the production domes and the large computer facilities. Even the hunters stopped being rewarded for killing monsters outside those areas. Consequently, the abandoned cities saw the crime burst to unbearable levels; sacks, pillages, assaults, and robbery became part of everyday lives of its citizens. Those who had means for moving out abandoned the cities while they could; the others became hostages in the hands of the criminal groups. Most of the small villages collapsed, many disappearing.

As for the mid-sized cities, they had to relay in the extra-official protection of the hunters. With the new rules for rewarding the freelancer activity, most of the hunters saw their profits plummet. Although they didn't need the money for the basic expenses, many have acquired lifestyles which were not compatible to the amount of money the government would provide every citizen, so many turned into mercenaries, exploring those cities which lacked government protection. If hunters had turned into criminals before, it was because of the outlaw nature of the groups. However, mercenaries easily turn into criminals, and many villages became literally governed by hunters.

Anna was growing less and less interested with her job. She still hunted biomonsters, mostly for the thrill of the chase. Her presence on the central agency, though, was becoming rarer and rarer. Forced to move to Zema after the city outskirts were overrun with biomonsters, Anna now was enrolled in the government social programs and had no need to work to keep her low lifestyle, so she didn't even have the need to hunt for money anymore. It looked like her days as a hunter would be over soon, but Anna didn't want to be one of those parasites she loathed, so she kept on hunting, even for free. Sometimes she would pay a visit to the central agency to gather information about biomonster activity, but she hardly took any mission.

During one of her rare visits to the central agency, Anna noticed some hunters she had never seen before eyeing her suspiciously. She didn't care very much about the incident at that time because she was more concerned with the prospects of eliminating a group of monsters which had been seen roaming a small village that was not under government protection anymore. Anna really enjoyed doing that kind of charity work, hunting for free, and helping people without having to deal with them. These missions were so spiritually rewarding to the blonde hunter that became slightly less cold and shy, occasionally engaging into a brief conversation with some of the villagers. As the time passed, the traumatic memories started coming less frequently to her mind and she automatically lowered her guard.

This time, it was no exception. Anna left for the village at dawn and spent most of the day chasing and killing fast-breeding Armorants. The large ants were no big threat by themselves, but their rate of breeding could potentially make their number excessively dangerous to the people of the small village south of Oputa. Although tired and a bit bruised, Anna did not stop a couple of hours after the sunset. She knew that she had to kill a large percentage of the Armorant group to make sure their breeding rate would not make the population of ants in the village outskirts larger than when she started hunting them.

Having achieved her goal, Anna returned to the village and, after buying some supplies at the local store, opted to dine in a restaurant, in a rare socializing moment. The blonde guardian didn't look like the fierce and cold woman she was known to be; not only she had a smile on her face, but also she didn't dismiss harshly the young waiter, who, obviously impressed by her beauty, started flirting mildly with her. The waiter, a tall and thin young man, with brown hair and eyes and an elongated face was not particularly handsome, but he was naturally funny and had a decent conversation, enough to keep her interested for a long time. It has been a long time since the last time Anna was actually conscious of herself as an attractive woman, but, deep inside, she wanted to be attractive and interesting, like any other girl.

Although life has been very unkind with Anna, prompting her to mature much earlier than the average girl of her age, shaping her as a cold person, demanding a lot of self-control, wisdom and courage, part of Anna was still that eleven-year-old girl who dreamed with the handsome celebrities, cared a lot about fashion and other girly things. She was the same girl who survived the attack in her former home because she was locked in her room, angry about her father prohibition of going out after the sunset. For most of the time in the past six years, Anna forgot she was a girl, or tried to deny it. But she was still just a teenager, and, despite detesting it, she would act exactly like a common teenager when she lowered her guard.

Though she was not really interested in getting involved with the boy, and the only time in her life she seriously considered getting involved with any man was with Richard, Lizzie's brother, albeit for just a few hours before he was mercilessly murdered before her eyes, Anna enjoyed the waiter's company. When she announced she was ready to leave, she couldn't hold her laughter at the waiter's frustration. An inner laughter, obviously, because, surprisingly, she still was very sensitive about the others' feelings when she didn't want to be harsh on purpose. Not resisting his appeals, she promised she would return in the next evening if she had not already finished her job.

Anna walked back to the inn singing to herself. Could it be that her life was becoming normal again? Could it be possible to the tortured hunter to dream with a regular future? Her life had been an endless stream of tragedies, why couldn't she live a regular life? Why would God deny her all the happiness and pleasure? She believed the saying _Happiness is not attainable in this world_, but why couldn't she attain, at least, some peace? Like everybody else, she only wished to not suffer too much. To do what the other people do. To have some leisure moments. To have fun. To eventually marry and form a family. Why would God never let her be happy? If only that sudden monster outbreak suddenly stopped and Motavia could return to peace, she could try to quit that life, resume her studies, become a teacher or a scientist, and settle down. It was her deepest wish, to be a common girl again. But God never allowed her to be a common girl. And Anna went to bed begging her God to, unless He, in all his uncontestable wisdom, had greater plans for her that demanded all that suffering, take away from her that cup of poison and let her live a common life. Just like any other girl.


	6. The Last Hunt

Anna woke up early the following day. She wanted to make most of her hunting time in order to finish that mission as soon as possible. In fact, it was not really a mission and she had no obligations with the central agency, the government or the village itself. But she had the moral obligation of protect the helpless villagers from the Armorant menace, so she wanted to finish her task before any reckless or foolish villager exposed himself or herself to an attack. As she predicted, the number of ants was far higher than when she left the fields the night before because she knew the ants had laid many eggs on the previous days that generated new ants. If not eliminated quickly, they would keep on breeding.

To her lucky, though, the young Armorants were more fragile and clumsy than the olders, often packed in groups. It was the perfect scenario for Anna. She attacked groups steadly with both slashers and didn't have much trouble eliminating most of the visible ants before noon. After a light lunch and a brief rest, the blonde hunter resumed her hunt, looking for hidden monsters and nests near the village. After an extensive search, Anna decided her hunt was over and returned to the village one hour before the sunset. She had to stay on guard for one extra day, waiting for new ants that could surface from hidden nests or buried eggs. But the hunt was mostly over and the next day was reserved for leisure. Obviously, for the loner teenage, a leisure day didn't mean much, as she had almost no interest in the common leisure activities.

While returning to the inn, Anna didn't know that she was returning from the last hunting mission of her life. Although she would fight many biomonsters in the future, the monster killings would be only a minor part of most important missions, a way to clear the monster-infested paths that lead her to her destinations. Her life was about to change again, exactly like in the past, through an unexpected event. The difference was that Anna was so used to it that she didn't bother anymore making plans for the future, so the psychological impact of this change would be minimal.

Unaware of what was about to happen, Anna arrived at the inn, took a shower, and dressed in a fashionable manner. She planned to fulfill her promise to the young waiter of the restaurant where she dinned the day before. As it was still early, Anna opted to spend some time at the inn hall, reading the news of the day in the datapad. As a coincidence, there was an article where one of the directors of the Motavian Defence Ministry member criticized the hunters, arguing that they were mostly ineffective in eliminating the biomonster threat, as both the number of hunter and the number of biomonster attacks kept rising. The man also criticized the lack of control over the activity, denouncing that, not only hunters turned into criminals, but also criminals turned into hunters to hide their illegal activities from scrutiny, as the government had almost given carte-blanche for the hunters to operate. Though the article was inflammatory, the accusation should have its legs. Anna herself had never been formally questioned about her actions; not even about the murder of the evil hunters. She knew she would be acquitted of the charges, but they didn't even start an investigation about it when the family of the attacked boy told the police that it was a hunter who saved the life of their child.

Dismissing the thoughts about violence, Anna left for the restaurant, not knowing that she would remember a lot about that article in the days to come. She wanted to have a peaceful evening. Arriving there, it was no surprise for her to see the eyes of the young waiter shine when they met hers. It felt like reenacting the previous day. The blonde hunter ordered some food and accepted the young waiter's flirtation during her stay, which lasted much longer than her dinner. She had a pleasant evening, chatting with the young man, sharing a good company, and even laughing a bit. She was very satisfied in having a night like any other regular girl would like to have, for a change.

Only at that moment, Anna realized that she had lost her adolescence between tragedies and military training. If sometime in the future Anna had the opportunity to have a regular life and become friends with other women, she was certain she would be the only one to not have any exciting story to tell; any dreamy relationship to account for; any passionate retelling of a run-of-the-mill story loaded with nostalgia. What would she have to tell? How striking was the experience of hearing and seeing her parents and siblings being murdered in front of her eyes? How arousing was to suffer a rape and murder attempt by the same rogues who murdered her family, and barely escaping? How delightful it was to kill the man who was trying to assault her friend? How enriching was the experience of surviving in the slums, alone, when she was just 13 years old, dealing with the dredges of the society? How heroically she successfully ambushed a crime lord and fatally stabbed him? How pleasurable it was to kill bandits during military missions? How thrilling it was to see her best friends being murdered in front of her eyes? How unique was the experience of being bitten by scorpions and left to die? How exhilarating was the experience of fighting and killing four rogues? No, she would not have any story to tell. She would not have any prom party to talk about, any forbidden adventure with a teenage boyfriend to tell, any complex girlish plot with her teenage friends to achieve a _very important_ thing, like throwing a big unauthorized party or helping one of the girls to get along with the high-school hottie. She would be an outsider in the girls' talk, like an introspective teenage boy, listening to it and regretting not being able to take part in those apparently silly activities, which made all the difference between a happy and a sad adolescence.

And that was the crucial point for Anna. Arguably, her teenage days, which were almost over, had been much richer and more important than the average girl's adolescence. Her stories were certainly deeper and helped shaping her character much more than any common teenager story; she was obviously more mature and wiser than most of the girls of her age. But, while most of the adults remembered their teenage days with joy, Anna would always remember her adolescence with sorrow, anger and regret. Everything she had ever had was lost. Everyone she had ever loved was murdered. Behind the cool and strong woman, there was a sad girl, whose cycle of ordeals, frustrations and depression seemed unending.

These thoughts ruined Anna's pleasant night. Fortunately, for her, the boy never realized she had lost interest in the conversation, so excited he was with the prospects of having the attention of a pretty and attractive woman as she was. At least she would not hurt him on purpose; she had already told him she would leave the city in the following day and the boy, despite showing a bit of frustration, seemed to be resigned. And it was better, she thought. She didn't want to hurt him. Of course, it is always good for a person's ego to learn someone is falling for him or her, but Anna was not the kind of girl who would encourage the boys flirting just to massage her ego, not caring about the consequences of her act. She knew it hurt to be used, to be driven to act like a fool. Her empathy worked very well when she allowed it.

After entertaining the waiter and letting him entertain her, Anna left the restaurant and went back to the inn. She had always been an introspective person and her mood was more introspective than the usual, thinking a bit about her future. She was trying to make up her mind and change a bit her ways with people in general. The hardened shell encasing her heart was somewhat effective in protecting her from external sources of sorrow, but it also hindered her from pleasures and happiness. Besides, it was completely useless against the sorrows that came from inside. She could not give a damn about the others, but she could not hide from herself, she could not shun her desires, hopes, wishes and dreams forever. Something surely had to change. Gradually, because she was wise enough to know that radical changes usually don't survive the test of time, and often lead the person to failures and deception. Her life had everything to be long; she had time enough to cautiously steer her ship, trying to find her way out of the mist, into the light. There was no need to hurry and act recklessly, crashing her ship on the first dangerous obstacle and sinking into the oblivion. But she had to steer her course, for she realized she was sailing directly to the edge of the plain world, to the point of no return. And she knew she would have to do it on her own; there would be no lighthouse guiding her to safety. Well, there was someone who always guided her to safety, but she ignored Him. Most of the time, Anna was blind to the light her God shone on her path, and she was aware of that. However, she considered herself beyond salvation, for all the wrongdoings and crimes she had committed, so religion stopped playing an important role in her life.

It took her quite a while to finally let her thoughts fade into dreams, but she felt relieved when it happened. She was a strong woman and had proven to herself that she could change, she could still be saved. Not for her God anymore, but for herself, whose main goal was to leave a honest and ordinary life. It is what gave her strength to wake up on the following day and return to her duties as a hunter. She spent most of the day in an extensive search for Armorants, but she could find none. So, she considered her personal mission accomplished, returned to the inn, packed her things and returned to Zema, satisfied with the outcome of her hunt.

After an eventless night, dedicated to resting, Anna used the morning of the following day to common activities, such as paying a visit to the grocery store and to the bank. After cooking her lunch and eating it, the blonde hunter put on her hunter attire and left to pay a visit to the central agency. Anna was not looking for a mission, for she had more money than it was needed. She was not planning to take a mission like the last one either, as she wanted some days off, in order to set her mind straight for the next challenge. However, there was no better place to gather information about the biomonster activity in Motavia. Moreover, though willingly to rest, she would always promptly overlook her own needs if there was a dangerous situation where her presence was needed.

Nonetheless, that was not the case, and, after a brief chatting, Anna left the central agency. Something, though, had made her feel uneasy. She noticed two or three unknown hunters staring angrily at her. She didn't remember very well, but she had the impression that they were the same hunters she had caught staring angrily at her before. She was completely at loss about why those men were looking at her; probably they had mistaken her for someone else, although she had never seen or heard about another teenage blue-eyed blonde hunter. And she was sure that, if such a hunter existed, she would have heard about her, as Anna was famous among the hunters for her attractiveness. Had not she been so strong-minded and cold, to the point of being antisocial and even impolite to her fellow hunters, they would not give her any rest with their constant flirtation.

Trying to not think about the last incident, Anna was walking back home, with her mind absorbed in other thoughts. She was walking on the sidewalk of a large park in the resort town, but the high steel walls didn't let her enjoy the beautiful scenery. There were few people passing by. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. Anna felt a strong impact in her left shoulder and rolled on the floor, in order to regain balance. As she looked back, there was a group of three men looking at her, one of them with a rifle pointed at her. The other man yelled at him.

"Damn, you fool! I've told you to aim at the head! What are you waiting for? Shoot again! Kill her!"

The blonde hunter, still a bit stunned, didn't have time to stop and try to figure out what was happening. Her life was in danger, so she let her survival instinct dictate her next movements. Had not her carbon vest deflected the shot, preventing the bullet from perforating her body, she would have a mortal wound. Before the man who had shot her fired a second round, she was already climbing the wall beside her, making the second shot miss her completely.

As Anna broke into the park, hiding herself behind the steel wall, she heard some people screaming; probably the passersby, frightened. She also heard the same man yell at his companion. "Idiot! You ruined everything! Surely she had recognized us! Now we are screwed!"

"What should we do?" Anna heard another distressed male voice yelling. The voice seemed to come straight from the position Anna was, except it came from the other side of the wall.

"Let's track her down and kill her! We can't let her escape again!"

The words of the man, who seemed to be the leader of the group, shocked Anna. She sat on the grass and started musing about what had just been said. If he said they couldn't let her escape again, it meant that those men knew her very well. However, she had no idea of who those people could be. She knew they were the men who stared at her angrily at the agency, but she didn't remember seeing them before. Why would they want to see her dead? She didn't have any sworn enemies. If she had not been friendly towards her fellow hunters, she never been mean to them. In fact, once she had, but she eliminated the whole group that attacked an innocent boy. Could it be that these men were part of the group, and were seeking vengeance over the deaths of the other members of the gang? It was a possibility, but it didn't satisfy the condition that she was escaping them again. She had never been chased or threatened after killing those men. Even if they were chasing her secretly, it would make no sense for them to attack her inside the city, with lots of passersby as witnesses, when they could have attacked her during her solitary journeys to the countryside. No, it made no sense. Who else could it be?

Anna heard the cries of men cursing that they were not able to climb up the wall, like Anna had done with ease. It broke the trance she was in. The girl shook her head. There was no time to lose wondering who could be trying to kill her because, if they succeeded, there would not be any difference for her dead corpse. She had to protect herself from the threat, and, to the courageous hunter, it meant fighting the ones who were posing a threat to her life. She was confident that she could win, and she didn't hesitate anymore.

The thrill of the chase made her take reckless decisions, and she climbed the wall back, not considering that she would be vulnerable for some crucial seconds before she could recover her balance over the wall and draw her slashers to attack the rogues who were trying to kill her. As Anna climbed the wall, she was some yards away from the place the rogues were trying to climb, so she had the time she needed to throw one of her slashers, wounding the arm of one of the rogues, and retrieve it, before jumping back inside the park.

"Damned girl!" The leader of the group yelled while his companion complained about pain. "We must catch her and make her suffer unimaginable pains!"

"Leave her! Soon the police will arrive here and I don't want to be arrested!" The other uninjured man yelled back, defying the leader.

"Coward! If we let her go, she will denounce us and we will be arrested anyway! We must kill that little brat, otherwise she will open her mouth and we will be condemned for all those murders. Is it what you want?" The leader answered assured that his argument would end the discussion.

"I'm dying." The wounded man moaned.

"Shut up, it is just a deep cut. Wrap your arm with your shirt and let's chase the little devil!"

The leader had just started giving orders, when they heard a loud scream. Anna climbed up the wall once again, madly, and before they could react, she jumped to the other side, throwing a slasher towards the leader of the group. The slasher spun in an insane speed, hitting the gang leader in his back, and drilling a hole through his torso, exiting from his chest. The man staggered and fell on the floor, over the pool of blood his wound was already forming through the severed arteries and heart. The other two men hesitated before discharging their guns on the hunter. Anna, though, was very experienced and ran like mad, circling the two rogues while occasionally throwing one slasher towards them.

Her quick movements were maddening, making the two rogues more and more furious each moment. Not only all their shots missed, but also her occasional blows hurt, making them more and more desperate. They had nothing to do; the blonde ghost avoided every bullet. The shock and the loss of blood made both rogues minds wander; Anna had become a supernatural entity, immortal, impossible to harm, determined to kill them. Both men regretted following the suggestion of their leader, who was blessed with a quick death. Though they tried different timing and aim positions, every bullet missed the blonde ghost, who dodged each one of them as if she could see their trajectory or if her body was involved in a magnetic field that naturally repelled the lead bullets. After a few minutes, when Anna was starting to feel tired, she decided to aim at vital spots of both rogues. Given her skill, death came swiftly for them.

As soon as the fight was finished, Anna crouched on the floor, gasping for breath. She was exhausted from the frenetic rhythm she had imposed to the battle, but she was safe. She had been cowardly shot in the back, but recovered and managed to overcome the three mysterious rogues. Despite of her tiredness, Anna decided to flee the shootout scene; she did not want to be seen there. Although the hunter knew she acted in legitimate self-defense, she wanted to avoid being associated with the murders of the hunters. The first reason was that she was never comfortable with the idea of killing people, even if her body count was above ten and some of her actions were deliberate, like aiming at non-vital spots of the two rogues she had just killed in order to make them suffer. In the heat of the moment, Anna took some decisions she considered wrong, and later she questioned herself a lot, grieving her mistakes. The other reason was that she would attract unwanted attention; she didn't want rewards, she didn't want more enemies.

Talking about enemies, as she left for her room in the inn, she could not stop thinking about the words the rogues have said after attacking her. They surely knew her from before, but she had no idea of who they were. Thinking about the hints they had given, it lead Anna to some possibilities. The first was the possibility she had dismissed moments ago. Though it still seemed unlikely, there was always the possibility that the men of the group thought she knew about other murders they may have eventually committed. But this alternative had much ifs to Anna's rational mind.

The other possible murderers she had met before were the murderers of her family; the members of the gang whose leader she had murdered or someone she had arrested while in military. She discarded the other possibility that came to her mind, Lizzie murderers, because she was certain she had not been seen, otherwise she would share the same fate of her best friend. But, as much as Anna thought, she was not able to come to a conclusion, and probably she would never know who were those guys. Moreover, she didn't care too much.

Anna had another thing about the incident in her mind. Something that would change her life. That would be the first time, however, that Anna would take the decision intentionally, after much thinking. She had been sent to an orphanage after her family was murdered. She had been thrown in the streets after killing the man that was assaulting her friend, who was also the orphanage owner's lover. She had enrolled the military academy to hide from the police and from the criminals seeking vengeance against her after she murdered the gang lord. She had left the academy after the traumatic experience of having everyone she loved murdered in an ambush. Now, she had decided her days as a hunter were over, but her decision was not taken in the heat of the moment. The murder attempt she suffered was just the last straw that prompted Anna to her ultimate decision of quitting the hunter job. Monsters kept bursting out, but there were many skilled hunters in charge of eliminating them and protecting the population. What about the crime spree? No one was doing anything about it. As if it was not enough to have the common criminals using the mess created by the monsters to commit more crimes and go unpunished, now Motavia had hunters turned into criminals and criminals turned into hunters. Something was very wrong in Motavian society and Anna was tired of being just a passive spectator. She had to do something and she would do something.

After a few days of the incident with the hunters, Anna left her room early in the morning to look for a new job. By that time, her shoulder injury had healed completely and her incident had became old news, so she was safe to go out. Her fight against the hunters had witnesses and, for a few days, many people had kept a wary eye for any suspect that matched the description given by the witnesses. Then, new incidents and the sensationalist press' hunger for shocking news made the whole affair become a cold case, and most people in Zema didn't even remember about the incident after a week. Anna had become just a nameless and faceless member of the crowd, exactly the way she wanted to be.

The ex-hunter still fiddled with the idea of becoming the mysterious heroine, who would protect every Motavian citizen by coming out of the shadows, dealing with the criminals quickly, and returning back to the shadows with her mission accomplished. But it was just a foolish dream and she knew it. In all those months as a hunter, she had had just one opportunity to be the heroine she dreamed to be. Meanwhile, a thousand of new gangs had surfaced, so her effectiveness had been null. Besides, if she wanted to become a bounty hunter, she'd act illegally; bounty hunting was outlawed in Motavia.

There was only one way. She had to return to the military. But the prospects were bad. Although she was certain she would be readmitted, as her military record was still impressive, especially considering she was not yet 18, the minimum age for an officer, she didn't want to have her actions constrained by the strict military rules. Besides, returning there brought back memories she tried very hard to suppress from her mind. She loved the freedom she obtained by being a hunter. The perfect job for her would be being a freelancer criminal hunter, but she knew that such a thing would not exist.

After spending the whole day researching, and doing something she disliked, which was inquiring people, Anna obtained some useful information. One soldier at one of the military posts that protected the city entrances mentioned a special operations group branded as _guardians. _During her times at the military academy, Anna had never heard about them. The soldier failed to provide additional details. Even so, any superficial information was better than nothing, and Anna returned home with this new piece of information.

The next morning was dedicated to library research about guardians. Though most of the information was classified, Anna had learned that the guardians were a secret operations group, led by the civilian government, in a joint venture with the military, whose members acted under the shadow of secrecy in order to perform the most critical missions. When Anna found an e-book attributed to a retired guardian, which shed some light on their _modus operandi_, she was so pleased that she accidentally let out a loud scream. A scream that lead her to be expelled from the library.

On another occasion, the shy teenager would be so taken aback by that unwanted shameful spotlight that she would never visit the library again, but she was so absorbed in the idea of becoming a hunter that she did not care. The job was perfect for her. They sent the guardians to the missions with no debriefing. Arriving there, some agent, disguised, would debrief them. Then, the guardians would act in secrecy, in order to accomplish the main goal. No questions would be asked; no doubts would be answered; their actions would not be constrained, as long as they accomplished their mission. She paid a visit to the military academy, in order to obtain an official digital record of her military activity, then she left went to the central agency and asked for an official digital record of her hunter activity. Both were spotless and impressive for a young woman.

Then, she prepared her next step: a trip to Paseo. In order to become a guardian, the candidate had to be appointed by, at least, three other guardians, high-rank officers or the commander himself. As Anna was sure she had no means of obtaining any recommendation, she opted to try a different approach. She would take her records and try to personally convince the commander she was fit for the job. Yes, it was a forlorn hope, but what else could she do? Life had always been unkind to her. She tried to be the good girl in the orphanage, and ended fighting for her life. She tried to be an exemplary officer, but ended being discharged, with a big trauma to carry for the rest of her life. She tried to be a good hunter, but ended barely escaping a murder attempt. Why not take some risks, expose herself? The worst outcome would be to be rejected, she had nothing left to lose. She only needed to find a way to have an appointment with the commander.

What Anna didn't know was that it was impossible for a citizen randomly have an appointment with him. Commander O'Conner was the Motavian governor. Although he was a very kind and considerate of the population's needs, it was simply impracticable to accept appointments by random citizens. Mayors of small cities had tried it before, and the results were disastrous, with city halls crowded with people with nothing better to do pretending they were important by having an appointment with the mayor.

But Anna would try anyway. She wrote a big letter, using very polite words, explaining why she wanted to become a guardian and begged the governor to give her the chance. She included her records from both her military and her hunter days, wrapped them in an envelope, addressed it to the governor, crossed her fingers, and sent it by teleport mail. Most probably it would end in the desks of subordinates, who would discard it without giving the proper attention, but it would not be so terrible, as it cost her only 20 meseta.

The next days were days of veiled anxiety for Anna. She tried to occupy her mind in leisure activities. For the first time since she had moved to Zema, she decided to go sightseeing and take part on the activities provided by the amusement parks and resorts of the touristic city. Though they were not so amusing to the cold woman, she forced herself into them, for they managed to drive her mind out of her main concern, at least momentarily. The main problem was that, as she would never be sure her letter has ever been read, her anxiety didn't even had a deadline.

Much to her surprise, though, she received a letter from the government, four days after sending her letter. When she returned from a relaxing walk by the lake, the inn manager handed her a letter. He was surprised by the girl's reaction, as he had never seen her so excited before. Anna, whose heart was racing like mad inside her chest, couldn't hide her anxiety. She sprinted to her room, letting the letter fall twice, as her hands were shaking. When she finally reached her room, she opened the polymer envelope and turned on the electronic letter. The first words were enough to make her smile like she didn't in years: _Destroy after reading. _Her eyes raced through the letter _Dear 1__st__ Lieutenant Anna Zirski. We appreciate your interest... _The key for her future was in that letter, Anna was sure of it. Many thoughts crossed her mind as she read it. _Upon your unusual request, it was given a careful consideration... _Could it be that fate was smiling upon her for the first time? Or it was just a deception. _...blablabla... the responsibilities as a guardian are greater than most of the honored citizens could take... blablabla... _Why was the letter so long? _...the contents of this letter must remain in secrecy... _Oh my God... Oh my God! _… and, in an unprecedented decision, I, commander O'Connor, ACCEPTED your request, based on your experience and dedication to the planet..._

"Yay!" Anna screamed very loud, giving vent to all the repressed anxiety and joy in her heart. She couldn't believe her eyes. But it was not needed to lay her eyes on the letter again. It would also be impossible, as she threw the electronic letter to the air, and it broke as it crashed on the floor. It couldn't be true! A guardian! Anna would be a guardian! She had just been accepted for the job of her dreams! Now she would be able to bring justice to all the criminals; she would be able to save the Motavians from that big threat; she would be able to be the silent heroine. Moreover, she had a new reason for keep on trying. A new meaning for her life.


	7. So You Wanted to be a Guardian?

Anna, the newest Motavian Guardian, was exhilarating with the news of her acceptance as a member of the special operations service, for she had almost no hopes of being chosen to take part of the government agency. She celebrated it for a few days. Of course, the cold blonde's celebration was nothing exciting to an external observer. She didn't go out; she didn't comment with anybody else. She didn't even scream like crazy, like an extroverted teenager would do. But she was happy and that was all that mattered. After all, the news concerned her, and only her, so there was no point of randomly annoying the strangers on the street just to tell them things they didn't want to know. People usually hold themselves in a higher regard than they should.

She had just got what she considered the job of her dreams. Now she would be able to do all that she always wished to do, but was unable because of the restrictions the military career and the hunter job had. After two or three days, all the excitation waned down and Anna was brought back to her senses again. She hadn't received any further instruction about her new job. She didn't know what to do and she didn't have anything to do, nowhere to go, and no one to ask about her upcoming tasks. She had to stay seated on her throne, inside her inn room, waiting for something, or someone. Or death, if nothing else ever came. With that, came the first perception that maybe being a guardian was not as perfect as she thought it would be since she was not in a position of controlling her destiny.

As the days passed and no news from the government came, the guardian girl started to feel depressed. Would it have been just a joke? Would it have been a lie? It was very believable that the government had sent a fake letter to the person who dared to contact the Commander O'Conner and directly plead him a position in the special operations team just to buy time to investigate that person. Why would Anna, who had all the opportunities for a bright future at the military, want to be specifically part of the secret service? It was, at least suspicious; especially considering she willingly quit the military. The immediate conclusion any sane person would come down to was that she had veiled interests in joining the guardians. Probably something illegal. Maybe she had been co-opted by crime lords to act as a double agent. It was not far-fetched to believe that she had fallen in love with a rogue and had defected to their side. They had seen that before, and it was not rare. They say no evil man is ever alone, and it is very common for the great criminals to have not only one foolish girl in love with him, but several at the same time. It had to be something like that: the government had fooled Anna while they bought time to investigate who she was and to discover her hideous plot.

Of course, it meant they didn't know her. She would be the least person to fall in love with a man and do whatever he asked her to do. Becoming a criminal was out of question. Anna acknowledged she had done things that were not only wrong, but also considered criminal, but they all came from her desire to bring justice to other criminals. Nevertheless, that was the point; they didn't know her. They didn't demand trustworthy recommendations for allowing someone to become a guardian on a whim. And, despite her thinking she was the most honest and the fairest person in the world, with her introversion and usual coldness, no one would trust Anna to walk one's dog out, mind being an all-powerful guardian. And her mysterious ways only worked against her, giving reasons for the others to infer those absurdities based on her behavior.

Down in her spirits, and down in her money reserves too, Anna gradually accepted the notion that she had been the target of a bad joke, or a deliberate move to make her stay away from the government. It meant that she had to return to her previous job as a hunter, or to call quits definitely and retire her slashers. Unwillingly, Anna chose the first option, as fighting was the only thing she was apt to do. After a short period living in the land of dreaming where Anna didn't resemble the cold and boring woman she was, the blonde teenager was back to her solitary life as a hunter. At least there were more and more biomonsters to be hunted down each passing day, so she would easily solve her monetary problem.

However, there were so many hunters that Anna didn't find any job as a common hunter. Instead, there was some kind of problem with Zema's teleport station, so Anna was hired to transport some medicine to Kueri, crossing the biomonster-infested wilderness. Using her stealthy skills, the blonde hunter managed to avoid the biomonsters on her away and arrive at her destination in a comely time. After some days doing that, Anna had already earned money enough for a month, so she opted to take a break, as she didn't yearn for more money than it was needed. As usual, however, her plans never came to fruition, and that was the main reason why she didn't care to spend much time planning her future. When she arrived at the inn, there was a mysterious man seated on the couch of the main hall. As she entered, the landowner, who often ignored Anna, came straight to her and inquired her about the man.

"By Mother Brain! Finally you arrived!"

"What?" Anna was startled by the landowner's uncommon reaction and she didn't have time to rationalize over what was going on.

"That man…" He pointed at the man on the couch. "He arrived shortly after you left early in the morning and has been waiting for you since."

"Why?" The golden-haired hunter looked confused, and her voice was of a disgruntled person.

"He won't tell me. He says it is secret." The man's countenance showed clear displeasure with the situation. "Do you know this man?"

Anna stared at the man and shook her head. "I've never seen his ugly face before."

"Well, you know the rules. No trouble, no people who disturbs the other customers, no drugs, no lovers, no prostitution…"

Anna pushed the landowner and started walking towards the mysterious man, interrupting his sermon. She mumbled harshly. "Enough of you blah blah blah!" The landowner was taken aback by her last statement and opened his mouth to protest, but resigned to just shaking his head. He had no reasons for doubting Anna, as she had always been a good customer. The creepy newcomer, who had stayed the whole day waiting for the girl, was surely something to worry about. But Anna deserved some trust, she had never caused any problems before.

As Anna approached the man waiting for her, he, who had been watching the whole discussion, stood up. When she was near enough, he, feeling assured that she was the person he was looking for, asked as a formality. "Ms. Zirski?"

"Yes?" Anna answered, feeling uneasy for the unusual situation.

"It is for you." The man handed a data pad to her. "Farewell."

"Thanks…" Still surprised, Anna tried to say something else to the man that had started leaving the inn, but no words came to her mouth, so she settled to just examining the data pad the man had given her. While she was still deciding what to do, her landowner came to her, in an angry tone.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know, I just don't know." Anna shrugged and turned to leave to her room.

"Well, you know, don't bring any…"

Anna left the man talking to himself. She was curious about the letter, but she wouldn't do until she was alone, in the safety of her room. It is not that she suspected it to be something serious or shameful, but she was not the kind of person who liked to share her privacy openly with the others. If the messenger didn't trust the letter to the landowner, it was clear that no one else was supposed to read it. The blonde hunter ran to her room and locked the door, but she was not that anxious to read it. Whatever it was, it could wait for some minutes. In her mind, it was more important to take a shower to get rid the dirty and part of the weariness she felt after a day avoiding biomonsters, so she left the letter waiting and only after she was feeling clean, she sat on her bed to read the letter.

As the first words formed into the electronic letter, Anna realized it was something serious. They advised her to destroy the data pad after reading the message, to make sure no one would read it afterwards. Besides, it also advised her not to tell anyone about the contents of the letter, not even its deliverer. Then, the letter proceeded to order her to be by Zema's lakeshore on the following day, at noon, in the snack bar. The letter continued threatening her if he failed to show up at the appointed place and hour or if she leaked the confidential information. It also instructed her to arrive unarmed and not to attract undesired attention.

The letter didn't make any sense to the girl; expect that, at the end, it was signed as an official letter from the Motavian Guardians Special Corps. Anna couldn't believe her eyes: they had not forgotten her. After more warnings to destroy the letter, Anna turned it off and laid on her bed, in a meditative mood. She was happy that finally a letter came, but it left more doubts than certainties. She was a guardian, yeah, but she didn't even know what a guardian was supposed to do. No one has ever instructed her on her job; no one has asked her anything; no one has answered any of her questions. Yet, according to what she had studied previously about the guardians, she had just been assigned a mission, as, according to the books, it was exactly their procedure in assigning missions. So, to be a guardian, was everything and nothing at the same time. Everything because no one has ever seen her, at least not officially; even so she had already been trusted to a secret mission. Nothing because she had received no training, no guidelines, no examples, no rules, nothing that instructed her in her new occupation. Nothing that distinguished her from a common civilian, unaware of the existence of such a special operations group inside the government ranks. It was as if she had earned a badge and that was all. Anyone could be a guardian. Maybe that was why she was accepted.

Not wanting to dwell on the significance or the insignificance of being a guardian, Anna took advantage of her tiredness and, after eating some snacks she had left around her room, she let her mind drowse off and soon she was sleeping. Her night was disturbed by the same old recurring nightmares, but they didn't even make the hardened girl awake, so used she was with those barbaric images she had seen with her own eyes in the past being reproduced by her self-destructive mind. The only way to vanquish her greatest enemy meant destroying herself, so she learned how to live with it.

The day had not dawned yet, but Anna was already awake. The usually self-controlled girl was feeling a bit anxious for her first mission as a guardian. It was not the job that made her uneasy, but all the secrets surrounding it. She expected some secrecy involving her job, as the guardians were like a secret service agency, but that was too much even for a secret service. However, she would not profit from getting overtly anxious for nothing, so she tried to prepare herself for the task ahead. After getting dressed and having her breakfast, the blonde guardian read again the message on the data pad, to be certain that she had not missed any important information. When she was sure enough of what she was supposed to do, she destroyed the data pad and left her room.

The way to Zema's lake was a pleasant one. The touristic resort had fully tree-lined streets and small parks in each road intersection, providing beautiful sceneries for the tourists. Anna liked to walk through its streets when she had nothing better to do, but it was so rare for her to take a stroll just to relax that it always felt like it was the first time she was visiting that part of the city. Her destination, the lake, was the main attraction of the city resort, so Anna expected the place to be crowded in a hot and sunny day. It only raised more doubts in the young blonde's mind. What was she expected to do in the appointed place? Would anyone come to give her instructions? How would the right person identify her as the guardian? Why should she come unarmed to perform a mission?

No, something had to be wrong and, as the time passed; Anna grew more and more suspicious. The fact that she arrived at the lakeshore more than two hours before the appointed hour didn't help either. With nothing better to do, she had plenty of time to build theories and conspiracies inside her mind. It didn't take long for her to start believing it was part of a plot to assassinate her. Maybe the vengeance for her last killings. Whoever had attacked her weeks before may have discovered her intentions, seized her correspondence and plotted her assassination, using the as an excuse the all-secretive ways of the guardians. That would explain why she had to appear unarmed. Yes, it was more believable than that commander O'Conner took pity on an unknown girl and decided to be generous, letting her join the guardians.

As a safety measure, Anna stayed away from the snack bar, just observing. She had decided to wait until the last minute to present herself. As she predicted, there were many people enjoying the sunny day at the lake. The people, coming and going, randomly staring at her made her go paranoid. Every moment she caught someone staring at her, she was startled. Most of the time they were just teenagers like her, giving the gorgeous blonde in a mini tube dress the eye. While she was obsessively trying to find someone suspicious at the crowd, she didn't notice a blonde shirtless young man, who had been whispering something to his dark-haired friend, walk towards her until he was very close. When she took notice of him, he was so near that he startled her.

"Hello." The boy greeted her, with a soft voice, which had some insinuating tones.

"Yes?" Anna was so anxious that her voice came out shaking.

"It's such a beautiful day." The man looked up, and then returned to Anna. "What are you doing here, alone?"

Anna answered harshly, for she realized the man was not who she was waiting for. "I'm working. Don't disturb me." Then, she turned her attention to the snack bar.

"Working, heh?" The boy smiled. "I didn't know they allowed it here." He paused and then reached the pocket of his shorts. "How much?"

"How much what?" Anna answered angrily, staring at the annoying boy again.

"Come on, you know what. Aren't you working?" The corner of the boy's lips twisted upward, in an ironic way.

The blonde guardian understood what the boy meant and, fast as lightning, she swung her left arm around the boy's right arm, locking it, while with her right feet she pulled both his legs, making him lose balance. While he was falling, she quickly grabbed his jaw and throat with her right hand, preventing him from falling on the ground. She stared at the boy's eyes, which were filled with fear.

"This is my job, do you understand? Leave me alone!" Anna barked at the boy and threw him on the ground, where he hit his back, making a loud thud.

The boy was paralyzed with fear. His friend, who was just watching the scene, had his mouth open, in shock. Anna ignored the boy and looked away from him. Slowly, she started leaving the spot where she was standing, knowing that she had just made a mistake by attracting unwanted attention. Besides, there was no need to hurt the boy. But she was a human, after all, and she was not able to keep that coolness forever. As she left the spot, the dark-haired boy walked towards his friend, who was still on the ground, somewhat stunned, and knelt beside him.

"What did that b...?" The dark-haired man yelled.

"Shut up!" The blond boy harshly interrupted him. "If she hears you, you will be like me in fifteen seconds."

"What did you do man?" The dark-haired man was shocked with the state his friend was left.

"Nothing, I just..." The blond boy looked at his friend and noticed he was not paying attention, as she was looking at the departing blonde.

"Look at those legs! The shake of her hips is hypnotizing me..."

"Fool!" The blond boy smacked the left temper of his friend, who immediately turned his attention to him.

"Why did you do that?" The dark-haired boy was indignant.

The blond boy pushed his friend. "Forget about this girl! Look what she had done to me!"

"But..." The dark-haired boy looked at her again. "She is so wonderful..."

The boys stayed arguing, but Anna didn't take further notice of them. She checked her wristwatch and noticed it was almost noon, so she walked to the snack bar and took a seat by one of the tables. The bar was crowded with people. She knew it would be useless to try to find the person she was supposed to meet, so she stayed there hoping that the person would be able to find her among the crowd.

Meanwhile, one of the waiters appeared to allow her to make her order. Anna didn't intend to order anything, but, as she predicted the waiters would be less than pleased if she occupied a table and didn't order anything, so she ordered a juice and waited, looking around to see if she noticed someone looking for her. The juice arrived after a few minutes, and when Anna was taking the first sip, she heard a mellow man's voice directed to her.

"Excuse me, girl, do you have a minute?"

"No! I'm working right now!" Anna answered harshly without taking her eyes from her glass of juice.

"I promise it won't take long." The person sat on the chair in front of her.

"Oh my God, it will be one of those days…" Anna rolled her eyes, making expressive gestures indicating she was much displeased with the man's impertinence.

"Good. It is exactly about Him that I want to talk to you." The man calmly added, ignoring the blonde's hostile reaction.

"Huh?" The last remark confused Anna, who, for the first time, looked at the man who was talking to her. He had brown hair, green eyes, and a big smile on his face. He wore some unusual garments, consisting of a long plain brown robe with some embroidery. Before she could say anything, the man continued.

"Forgive me my impertinence, but I've observed what you had done to that boy a few minutes ago…"

A sarcastic Anna abruptly interrupted his discourse. "Your impertinence is forgiven, now you can leave." As she finished speaking, she turned to look at another side, ignoring the man.

"Heh," The man forced a laugh, and then resumed. "However, my lady, I didn't get to the point I was aiming at. Your reaction was not a godly reaction."

"Hey, who are you to criticize me?" The blonde guardian was furious. She stared at the man's eyes in a threatening way.

"Me? I'm no one…" The calmness in his voice only made Anna angrier. "However, it is not I who will judge you. The one who will do it disapproves your conduct."

"What?" Anna hit the table with her fist, producing a loud thud that attracted the attention of some customers nearby. "Do you have the faintest idea of what that crook had said to me?"

"It doesn't matter." The man answered nonchalantly, though in a confident way. His serenity got on Anna's nerves. "The truth is, no matter what he had done to you, you should not answer with violence, but with tolerance. You should show him the other cheek."

The furious guardian was left speechless. She was well acquainted with those words. The shock came from the fact that she had just met someone who knew those same teachings as well. It was the first person she met who believed in the same things as her. She was pathetically speechless, under the eyes of many strangers, trying to find a place to hide; wishing that it were just a bad nightmare.

But it wasn't. The man stood up and left a card. "If you need it, you will know where to find me."

Anna watched the strange man go away, feeling deep shame. Without looking, she knew many people from the other tables were observing her. Once again, she had failed in not attracting unwanted attention. In fact, the whole day had been a huge mess and she was feeling so ashamed that everything she wanted was to leave that place for good and return to her room, in order to cry. To the hell with that whole damned guardian affair; she was just a name, or a number. If they didn't even bother knowing who she was, most probably she did not deserve to be a guardian. It was no job of her dreams. Everything she wanted was to disappear from the lakeshores and never return. Anna was fighting very hard not to smash the juice glass on the floor and run away from that stupid place. She was on the verge of crying, when she felt something on her shoulder.

"Ms. Anna Zirski?"

Startled, Anna jumped on the chair. The man who touched her shoulder realized he had scared the girl and tried to reassure her. "Forgive me."

Anna turned her head to look at the man, who wore casual clothes and sunglasses. There was something on his countenance, though, that betrayed that he was not feeling comfortable in that outfit. Although Anna was still startled, she was sure that man was the one who, according to what she had read about the guardians' procedure, would give her the orders for the mission.

"Yes?"

"This man," The man showed Anna a picture. "He is a crime lord. You must go and arrest him. He is probably being protected by his minions, so take care." The man took away the picture.

"Is it all?" Anna was somewhat confused and somewhat baffled by the lack of further explanations.

"Oh, I almost forgot." The man commented nonchalantly. He handed a pair of handcuffs to Anna. "Use them to arrest the guy. See you later."

"But..."

Anna tried to argue, but the man had already turned his back on her and was walking away. It was useless to try to ask him something else, for he was clearly in a hurry to disappear from her sight. She knew they were all too secretive, but that was ridiculous. Anna was frustrated by the lack of importance she had as a guardian. Was it all? Would her career as a guardian be like that? Thrown into a mission without support, without help, without protection. Like being sent to a certain death. A disposable agent whose death was almost certain, and whose success would come as an unexpected bonus. Mind you, be sent to arrest a crime lord, unarmed. What did they think she was?

Tragic. There was no word more fit to describe the outcome of that morning than tragic. Everything had gone wrong for the poor blonde hunter, who tried so hard to change her ways and become a better person. Her dream job has suddenly become a nightmare, plagued with uncertainties and dangers. Moreover, the prelude to her mission was terrible; Anna lost her self-control and played the fool in front of everybody. In the end, she was humiliated, her wrong ways exposed in front of a bunch of strangers. She had been a complete failure in coping with the teachings of her own religion. She had sinned, she felt dirty, corrupted, unworthy of love and consideration. Maybe all those tragedies were what she earned for being such an evil woman. And the nightmare of being a guardian was a lesson for her: never wish for things that were not meant for her.

All that she had was the burden of an unwanted profession, the sorrow of her traumatic past, the shame for being the complete failure she was and the tears that insisted in flowing from her eyes down her cheeks. That was the might guardian Anna Zirski.


	8. Taming the Lions

After grieving for some time the realization that the situation she had gotten herself into was terrible, Anna tried to calm down and to think rationally again. Crying, wishing it was not true, or denying would not help her. Her problems would still be there. And her biggest problem at that moment was to find a way to accomplish her mission. Everything she had was the mental image of a picture that had been shown to her for less than ten seconds and a pair of handcuffs. Those scarce resources had to be enough to arrest that certain crime lord. As if her life was not difficult enough.

The blonde guardian didn't even know where to start. Thinking about her conversation with the man who had assigned her the mission, she realized that the man didn't even tell her whether she should expect to find her foes in the lakeshore or not. Besides, the lakeshore was so crowded that finding the right man was like finding a needle in a haystack. She had no better guess, no resources, no help, nothing. So, she decided to take a walk in the shoreline, like hundreds of people were doing, expecting to find the crime lord by chance, hoping the providence would help her to find a way to accomplish her mission.

However, her plans were already marred by her usual lack of luck. Her outfit was inadequate for her task. Who in Motavia would walk in the sandy lakeshore wearing hunting boots? No, she had to meddle with the passersby if she wanted to stand a chance against the crime lord and his minions. It meant to wear bikini and beach sandals. Anna had none. Although she was a little fashion-conscious, exposing her flesh was not something she was fond of doing. She used to wear short dresses, but they had a practical purpose by not constraining her movements, and not showing her legs, for she knew her beauty was useful only to attract unwanted men. However, if she wanted to be a secret agent, she had to make some concessions, and it included dressing in a way she would not do willingly.

Anna considered her options, but she had to discard the easiest alternative. Her lingerie didn't resemble a bikini. If she just took out her dress, she would attract more unwanted attention than walking in the sand wearing hunting boots. Besides, she risked being arrested. For Anna, it was a very stupid rule, for the average bikinis, according to the current Motavian fashion, left more flesh exposed than most of the comfortable underwear women wore on a regular day. However, discussing the society's hypocrisy would not help her in achieving her goals, so Anna resigned to go to the beachwear store to buy her a swimsuit and a pair of sandals that would allow her to meddle with the common people.

The experience of buying clothes was unpleasant, as Anna had predicted. She entered the store shyly, not knowing what to look for. Certainly, there were many bikinis, but to choose something appropriate was a hard task. There were colorful ones, plain ones, those who exposed too much flesh, those who were appropriate for older ladies… many choices and many doubts in the mind of the blonde bombshell, who, surprisingly, didn't want to use the generous attributes mother nature has prized her to her advantage. In fact, she wanted to conceal them as much as possible. But her confusion didn't last long. It didn't take long for one of the female clerks, a short red-haired girl, to notice her puzzled face and come to her help.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Do you want me to help you choosing a bikini?"

"Well… No… I mean, yes…" Anna was clearly embarrassed.

"Don't worry." The clerk smiled at Anna. "I'll help you to find something that will make you look stunning. Let me first take some measurements. Would you please uncross your arms?"

Anna uncrossed her arms and waited. She had no idea what would come next. The female clerk stretched her arms towards Anna's body and measured Anna's chest and hips with her hands. The blonde guardian was feeling embarrassed to have her measurements taken in public, but the other customers seemed to be unaware of her, or they didn't care. After the inspection, the clerk turned to the shelves and selected a few different models, showing them to Anna and addressing their qualities. Anna discarded the ones that looked smaller and settled with a blue flowery one, not so small, not so large, hoping it would help her go unnoticed among the crowd. The clerk commented her choice.

"Terrific! You will surely shine inside it."

Anna blushed and answered hesitantly "It is exactly what I was not looking for."

The clerk tried to be friendly and cheer her up. "Come on, you are so pretty that you already shine on your own. Why wouldn't you want to show yourself?"

Anna shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

Not wishing to prolong that conversation, Anna thanked the clerk and hurried to the counter. Near the counter, there were some beach sandals on display. Anna chose one of her size, paid for her swimsuit and left the store.

The next step was to rent a locker and then go to the dressing room, to change to her casual outfit. As Anna put on the brand new bikini, she immediately realized it was too short for her, probably one number smaller than her size. She didn't know if it was a deliberate move by the clerk, but her well-proportioned body looked even more attractive. If it was not already enough, the many scars acquired during her days as an officer and a hunter were perfectly visible. Besides, she had a hard time to conceal the pair of handcuffs inside her small swimsuit. Her plan to blend well on the crowd without attracting any particular attention failed miserably.

However, once she had gotten herself into that situation, she had to go on until the end. She had wished so much to be made a guardian that she didn't want to bail out without even trying. As bad as it looked, to play the attractive-teenager-showing-off role trying to lure a crime lord into a trap was less embarrassing than admitting her failure without even trying. She might be reckless, selfish, boring, obnoxious, cruel, and even evil, but one thing she had for certain: she was no coward. She would never falter in her obligations; waver at the dangers of her current or past occupations. This courage and sense of duty was what made her so competent at the military and so successful as a hunter. And that same courage would be the key for her success in her new endeavor as a guardian.

Therefore, Anna started walking by the lakeshore, pathetically trying to find the man in the photograph she had looked at for less than ten seconds. There were so many faces, so many people coming and going, and she didn't even know for sure if the crime lord was to be found at the lake resort. Many times, she thought she had found the man, only to learn that it had been only her imagination working against her. There was no evidence that any of the men who resembled the guy in the picture was the man she was looking for. Not to mention the hundreds of pairs of eyes set on her, especially on the parts of her body her small bikini uselessly tried to cover. It was particularly annoying because the only chance Anna stood against a group of armed men was a stealthy arrest.

After walking up and down the lakeshore for hours, suddenly the guardian's eyes spotted something suspicious. There was a group of men seated in beach chairs, drinking beer and laughing. The group, per se, was not unusual, for Anna had seen dozens of groups like that on that day. The suspicious thing about that group was that there were four men standing near the group, forming the corners of an imaginary square, all with serious expressions, arms crossed, formally dressed, and using sunglasses. They looked like security guards. That was what caused the click on Anna's mind.

Taking care of keeping herself at distance trying to avoid attracting the attention of the group, Anna started examining them. She could barely remember the face features of the man in the picture the guardian agent had shown her after all those hours, but, from what she could remember, none of the men in the group resembled the guy in the picture. There was a man who seemed to be the leader, as all the others constantly addressed him. Besides, they seemed to be making fun of each other, but never of that man. The only problem was that the leader of the group was bald on the top of his head, a bit overweight and had a goatee, and the man on the photo didn't have any of these particular features.

Trying to act naturally, Anna laid on the sand near the group and pretended to be getting suntanned, while she kept an eye on the group. Some minutes passed and nothing suspicious happened, but the four men who kept on guard. The guardian concluded that she was observing the right group, and that the man who instructed her showed her a picture of ten years before. That didn't surprise her, as all that guardian affair had been so amateurish that Anna couldn't believe the group to have such a mythical reputation. Or maybe it was deliberate; to test her skills and see how well she could fare in a mission were she was certainly unprepared and underpowered. Therefore, if they wanted to test her, she would prove herself better than they had expected. All she had to do was to wait for an opportunity to arrest him.

Waiting for an opportunity was not the problem; she could stay there, pretending she was getting suntanned for hours. The problem was that there was always someone bothering her. From time to time, an illegal seller would offer her some products she was not interesting in buying. Sometimes, a man from one of the snack bars came to offer her some food or drinks. The worst, obviously, was the harassment by flirting men. She has not been there for fifteen minutes when a middle-aged man sat beside her.

"Hello, princess. I was wondering why such a pretty woman has no company…"

Anna, startled, turned to the man and eyed him through the corner of her eye, with a menacing expression. "Buzz off!"

"Hey, princess, there is no need to be angry. I just want to have a friendly chat…" The middle-aged man insisted, in a calm and confident manner.

"Sorry, I'm not interested." Anna interrupted him harshly. "Besides, I'm busy."

"Busy, heh? Busy getting prettier and prettier…" The man commented with a smirk.

"Oh, my God, what did I do to deserve this…" Anna shook her head and tried to ignore the men's advances, returning her attention to the man she guessed as the crime lord. She desperately noticed that the bald man with a goatee was standing up, after having received a call on his portable phone. He talked briefly and then left the group for a while, followed by two of the four suspicious bodyguards. If she wanted to stand a chance of arresting the crime lord, that was the opportunity, so she tried to stand up and follow the group, but the middle-aged man tried to stop her, holding her arm.

"Hey, don't leave yet. You still owe me an answer…"

"What?"

"I won't let you go unless you give me the answer you owe me!" The man looked at Anna with an air of defiance.

"I owe you nothing, idiot!" Anna pushed the man away and stood up. The man, somewhat shaken, tried to babble some words, but the blonde girl was already far enough to not hear him. Realizing he had played the fool, he yelled one or two offensive words at her, trying to put the blame on her and not feel humiliated in public. Anna blushed. She was angry with the man because he was attracting the attention of people to her. She shook her head and mumbled, "I wish I were ugly, like Lizzie…"

Then, the memories of her former friend flooded her mind. She slowed down her pace and meditated about what she had just said. Being ugly didn't save Lizzie from hostile men's advances, and what Anna had just endured was nothing compared with what had happened to her dearest friend Lizzie. And she reflected about the meaning of wishing she were like Lizzie, realizing that it was her wish she had died in Lizzie's place. She was just wasting her time and her life in useless and meaningless missions like the one she had gotten into, with the excuse that she was trying to help people. Lizzie, on the other hand, could have married, be studying to become a doctor, effectively helping people, and, moreover, bringing happiness to her family. Anna had nothing and no one to live for. She felt like an agent of doom and sorrow, for no one wanted to cross her path, and for those who were unlucky to run by her randomly always ended in a worse state of mind than before, if not dead.

Trying to dismiss her thoughts and bringing doom to someone else, Anna tried to concentrate on the mission ahead. A few passersby had reacted to the middle-aged man's yells, but they were at loss, for, no one was actually paying attention to him or her before he started his hissy fit. Moreover, the crime lord was walking slowly, carelessly, and he had not taken a great lead, making it possible for the blonde guardian to try to catch up with her plans.

Hoping the annoyance was gone for good, the blonde guardian tried to make up a plan in her mind quickly, in order to arrest the man successfully. The lack of resources was almost depressing to the ex-lieutenant, used to the best resources available, but as it had to be that way, lamenting would only consume the scarce time she had to think in a way to accomplish her mission. She trusted her barehanded combat skills, and all she needed was an opportunity to strike, get rid of the bodyguards, and arrest the man. It would not be the most dangerous thing she had done in her life if there were no other dangers nearby.

She discreetly followed the group until the edge of the sand, where the crime lord met a newcomer, who was obviously not ready to join the group, as he wore a dark suit and shoes. They had a brief exchange of words and they exchanged something Anna could not see from the concealed position she placed herself into, behind some food crates, by the wall of a snack bar near them. Soon, they exchanged some goodbyes and the crime lord started returning from his rendezvous.

The blonde guardian was anxious in her concealed position. She knew she would have to act very fast in order to arrest the man and run away with him. She had no doubts that his bodyguards were armed and she would not stand a chance against them in a direct confrontation. So, she had to deal with the two man escorting the crime lord, arrest the man and escape unnoticed, as fast as she could, for she knew the other men would start looking for him as soon as they noticed his absence. She prayed silently to her God to help her control her feelings. Not that she feared failing or even being killed; she was afraid of herself, and what she might do in the heat of the moment.

When the crime lord was passing by the snack bar tent, he was pulled by something holding his left arm. He tried to disengage violently from the hold, but it only hurt his wrist. As he looked back, he realized that he had been handcuffed to an iron pipe that sustained a tent placed by the side of the snack bar. He became angry and screamed some bad words, attracting the attention of the bodyguards. As soon as they turned to look, one of the bodyguards was hit in the back of his head with a piece of wood and immediately collapsed. The other bodyguard didn't even have the time to react properly; as he turned to look what had happened to his companion, he received a punch on his throat, injuring his windpipe and making him fall on his knees, gasping for breath. Meanwhile, the crime lord started cursing the blonde girl who had attacked his bodyguards, yelling offenses.

Anna simply ignored the man's protests. She knew that it would not take long for the other men to discover her attack and follow her. Unarmed, she was able to defeat two unprepared bodyguards, but she knew she stand no chance against a bunch of armed men who would shoot her back before asking. So, she opened the handcuff extremity tied to the pipe and closed it on his right wrist. Then, she punched the crime lord in the face and started dragging him away, pulling him by the handcuff chain.

The man protested and cried for help, but Anna kept dragging him through the beach, and then the nearby street. She advanced with difficulty, as the crime lord was heavy and tried to resist her pull. Besides, she didn't know what to do with the arrested man, for she was not given any specific order. Knowing that hesitation could cost her life, the blonde guardian walked away from the lake shore trying to increase the distance between her and the gang members that would surely be looking for them in a matter of moments. As soon as she left the beach area, she started walking towards Zema's downtown, where she expected to find some police officers and hand the captured man to them.

The task was not easy not only because of the difficulties already mentioned, but because the yells attracted the attention of every person passing by. The crime lord was seated, kicking and screaming offenses towards the guardian. For a moment, Anna considered finishing him off with her own hands and then running for her life, but she remembered the promise she had done to her God few minutes before and shortly dismissed the idea. Maybe knocking him unconscious would be a good idea, but she didn't have the time to stop and safely do it, so she kept walking fast, trying to reach the first crossroads before being spotted by one of the gang members.

The psychological ordeal was taking its toll on Anna, and many times, she considered abandoning the man, and subsequently abandoning that life, always living on the edge. She could not stand for much longer. If all the missions would be like that, it would be a matter of months until she found death, either during one of the dangerous missions, or by complete exhaustion. Thinking back, she has been living in a hallucinating rhythm since she had left the orphanage, wasting all her adolescence pursuing some kind of job she didn't seem to be cut out for, for it always turned out wrong in the long run.

Looking back to the times of her tender infancy, she used to be a delicate child, cute, like a doll. At the age of eleven, she was much like all her school friends, just a schoolgirl in her pre-teens, dreaming with pop artists and naively experimenting with the idea of romance. Now she didn't even have the mind frame to think of herself as a woman, the woman that she should be. On a sunny day like that, she was supposed to be having fun at the beach, like any other girl at her age. Not trying to solve the society problems mechanically. Yes, she felt like a machine, one of those combat robots that she had seen often while in the military academy, that would follow blindly the orders, even when they were questionable, or given in an inappropriate manner. She couldn't call herself a professional, as she just looked like a brainless mercenary, thirsty for blood and money, although the later was a false premise. Her parents would certainly cringe at the idea of her daughter joining the military, especially when most people were doing nothing. However, they would eventually digest the idea if she was an honored professional, but not the hideous agent she had become.

Although these thoughts seemed to be very uncomfortable, they had a positive effect on the blonde hunter, as she felt less the anxiety of being chased by men who would not think twice before killing her. The crime lord was still screaming and attracting the attention of the passersby, but there were not many people in the streets at that hour of day, and those who were there preferred not to meddle with their affairs. If Anna hated the apparent passivity of the average citizen, she was benefiting from their apathy.

Relieved that she was able to take a turn at the crossroads and advance without being found by her pursuers, the guardian then had to choose where she would take the arrested man. Her muscles were already strained by the continuous effort of pulling the heavy man, and changing arms occasionally was not enough anymore. There was a police station three blocks away, but it didn't seem feasible to keep pulling the man like a bundle. Knowing that he had his legs all scratched, and probably he was in a greater pain than she was, she tried to think in an alternative of dragging the man faster to her objective.

"Can't you make the things easier?"

Anna asked the crime lord, but he ignored her and kept screaming for help.

She insisted. "If you walk, we can get there faster."

"To the police department? You must be kidding!" The man spat on Anna's face and resumed yelling and cursing her.

Anna was very angry. She had to use all of her self-control not to finish the crime lord right on the spot. However, it was her fault to think a rogue would cooperate with her. The scheme she had in mind only satisfied her needs. It was obvious that the criminal wanted to delay his arrest, hoping to be rescued, or for some opportunity to run away. Under Mother Brain strict laws, the crime lord was sure he would serve in jail for a long time, so there was no reason for submitting to the officer's requests, even if the alternative meant death. So, the guardian had to stick to her current strategy.

After some minutes, which looked like years to the hunter, she had finally advanced most of the distance that separated her from the nearest police department. Her limbs were aching, but her exceptional resilience made her keep pressing forward, yard per yard, towards her goal. Maybe as a lucky twist of fate, despite the fact that the crime lord was acting like a fire engine siren, no one came to rescue him. And it was a great relief when the blond hunter finally climbed up the steps and crossed the police department gates.

However, it was not as she planned. The scene confused the police officers and it didn't take long for some of them starting making jokes about the hot blonde in a bikini and the middle-aged man in handcuffs yelling like mad. The officers were insinuating that it was a romantic fantasy gone wrong. It only helped infuriating the blonde guardian, who threw the arrested man towards the chief constable's desk.

"Take it!"

"What? What does it mean?" The chief constable was perplexed by the unusual scene. He has always striven for order and discipline, but suddenly strangers in an unacceptable conduct had raided the police department, and the officers stayed placidly watching and making fun of the invaders.

"Weren't you looking for him?" Anna asked nonchalantly.

The chief constable immediately recognized the face of the famous crime lord. "How is it possible?" He refused to believe that the notorious criminal, who openly defied the authorities by going to public places and challenging them to arrest him, had been brought by a mere teenager..

"I was dragged all the way by that b…"

"Shut up!" The constable interrupted the arrested man, who would protest against the way the guardian had pulled him to the police department. "Nobody is talking to you, scum! You'd better be quiet if you don't want to be dragged back by the tongue!" Then, he turned to Anna and, with an inquisitive expression, waited for her account of the facts. However, the blonde guardian was not inclined to talk and turned back to leave, so he asked, "Who are you?"

Among laughter and whispers saying she was the crime lord's mistress, lover, plus some vulgar flirting, Anna answered without turning her head. "I'm a guardian." Then, she left the building, leaving all the officers stunned with the jaw-dropping revelation. They have never expected that blonde teenager in bikini to be a guardian, and they knew that it had been a big mistake to make fun of such a powerful person. If she denounced them, they would face a severe punishment.

Nevertheless, Anna could not care less. As she left the police department heading home, all that she wanted to do was to forget about what had happened that afternoon. Surely, it was an exhilarating feeling to have accomplished such a dangerous mission with the miserable resources she was provided with, and the astonishment on the officer's faces was already an enormous reward for her ego. The cold orphan girl with a life filled with tragedies, though, could not care less about all that. Everything she wanted was to forget about all that guardian business and to get over her silly dreams of becoming the paladin of justice. Her only desire was to think about a way of regaining her humanity through an honest, decent, and womanly job. And trying to compensate for all her teenage years lost as a heartless killing machine.


	9. The silent peace

A few days passed and the only worry in Anna's mind was to come up with an idea on what to about her life. Although her first mission as a guardian had been successful, she was less than satisfied with what she had to endure, and the frustration led her to question her work, ways, and beliefs. She felt inclined to make a radical change, abandoning the military and law enforcer life in favor of some peaceful career. Remaining in the military life meant either keeping being a guardian, turning back to her unsatisfying hunter life, or probably be among those morons she had just met at the police department. Therefore, she didn't consider any of these options acceptable. Alternatively, she could opt to do nothing, as she was reaching the age of 18 and was eligible to receive government assistance, which was more than enough for a person to live a comfortable life those days. The last option, though, has never thrilled Anna, she could not even think about living without working. The main concern was that she had considered many alternatives, but none had attracted her interest.

In fact, there was one option that kept bugging her mind. For a while, Anna seriously considered assuming Lizzie's persona, trying to do what Lizzie would be doing if she were alive. Studying medicine, being a good housewife, living a tedious, ordinary, but happy life. The idea, though, was absurd and shameful. As much as she blamed herself for her best friend's death, pretending that she was her late friend made no sense. It would not give her life a new meaning. It would not bring Lizzie back. Lizzie was her best friend, but she has never wanted to be like Lizzie. In fact, their friendship thrived only on Lizzie's cheerfulness and submissiveness, as the now deceased girl had a completely different personality from Anna's. Trying to live what should have been Lizzie's life if she had not died was pathetic, and, after much thinking, Anna came to that conclusion and abandoned the idea.

All that soul-searching was something painful for Anna, and it was very difficult to discover something that really represented her own tastes, beliefs, and wishes. Most of the insights she had, she discarded, as she was not finding her true self, but trying to comply with what the society expected from her, or with her late parents' wishes. All in all, it seemed that she was cut for the jobs she had been working on for the past few years because she was really that emotionless automat, who had no feelings, wishes, and dreams. Yet, she suffered. It meant something was out of place, but she couldn't discover what.

Meanwhile, the only thing she had done was going back to the lakeshore to retrieve her belongings left inside the locker. The short trip was not a happy one, for it brought back the memories of her mission as a guardian. Besides all that had happened, Anna was feeling even more baffled by the complete lack of feedback after the mission was accomplished. It was as if she had been used as a tool and then thrown away. It was more than reason enough for her to quit that ill-fated occupation.

However, a datapad letter she received four days after arresting the crime lord interrupted her ponderings about life and the future. Anna guessed it had to be something about the guardians, but she was determined to ignore the letter. And, if someone looked after her, she would throw at his face everything about what the guardians really were, tell him to screw himself and never look for her again. If they would arrest her for desertion or not, she didn't care, as long as she could see herself free from that ridiculous guardian affair.

However, by reading the contents of the datapad, there was a sudden change in her spirits. The letter started acknowledging her efforts in bringing justice to a dangerous crime lord and praising her flawless performance. They went on praising her courage, intelligence and other skills. The praise was so exaggerated that Anna dismissed most of it as senseless flattery. Maybe they were apologizing for the treatment they had given her during her first mission. Maybe it was their way to try to lure the guardians into another trap, and then be quick to make amends, in order to make the guardians feel important. Anyway, Anna was no fool and the datapad was already fated to the wastebasket when she read the last sentence.

Anna re-read the same sentence many times before her mind could believe what her eyes had just seen. She had been invited to a meeting in their central headquarters. Despite her negative feelings towards the guardians, it was enough to spark Anna's curiosity, for it might represent that the guardians were not as amateurish. And, in the worst-case scenario, at least she would have an opportunity to personally tell them all they deserved to listen, and then resign her position with her morale up, after giving vent to all her frustration and anger towards the irresponsible people that put her life on jeopardy.

Then, while waiting for the day of the meeting, the nature of her self-questioning changed. What would she do if they told her they wanted her to perform in another mission as a guardian? After thinking a lot about leaving the military life for good, she only concluded that she had no other talents except being a vicious fighter. Besides, she had no other professional aspirations. Anna seemed to be destined to be a fighter. Her performance on her mission as a guardian only amounted to that, since, despite the lack of preparation and resources, she managed to find a way to accomplish the mission goals successfully. Therefore, when the day of the meeting arrived, she had already made up her mind. If they showed some professionalism and respect for her, she would probably resign to her fate and accept the job.

The meeting was not very remarkable, although it led her to take an important decision about her future. Anna arrived one hour earlier than the scheduled time, only to find out that the Guardian's HQ entrance had no bells and no one to answer her vigorous knocking on the steel door. She had to sit on the sidewalk and wait. Many times, she considered turning back and forfeiting any aspirations of developing her career as a guardian, but she didn't, for she knew well that it was her anxiety and usual pessimism conspiring against her. The blonde girl tried to calm down and distract her mind with other thoughts, but the only images that came to her mind were the same images that tortured her repeatedly. The time seemed to be slowing down gradually to a complete halt, and for a moment Anna felt as if she would spend the rest of her life waiting in front of the steel door, or maybe even the eternity.

Two minutes before the appointed hour, a click in the door put the guardian out of her imaginary eternal penitence of remembering and reliving the saddest moments of her life while waiting for a future that would never come. She turned her head and met a silver haired man in a black suit, inviting her to follow him inside the building. The girl silently acquiesced and followed him through dimly lit stairways and corridors to a small room. The frugal furniture failed to call the girl's attention, for the man she was following and another stranger in a black suit stole all her attention.

As the door was closed, she was invited to sit down in a comfortable chair. Both men introduced themselves as high-ranked Motavian secret service agents, then thanked her interest on helping the country, and proceeded to praise her efforts in capturing such an important criminal. The compliments made Anna feel at ease, though she couldn't prevent grinning at the suggestion that dragging a screaming man for five blocks was an outstanding performance, but either the agents were unaware of this particularity of her performance or they didn't care, as long as she managed to accomplish the main objective with no causalities or collateral damage.

As soon as they finished their compliment, Anna urged for asking many questions about the guardians, especially if they still wanted her to be part of the organization, and, if so, whether the missions would lack the proper preparation like the last one, or not. She was too shy to dare to ask those questions, though. Despite being competent, and somewhat lucky in her missions, Anna knew she was just a girl invading the realm of the elite agents of Motavia, so she shunned at the presence of men who probably had become senior officers before she was born. Fortunately, it didn't take long for them to start talking about her future in the organization.

They went on to explain the nature of a guardian's job, which was to arrest criminals that posed a threat to Motavian security. They usually carried their missions secretly, always aiming to arrest people labeled by either Motavian government or Palman central government as enemies of state, using the minimum force possible. Although they would not question the eventual killings during the missions, killing the main target was not considered a success, for Mother Brain had issued a decree that every enemy of state was worthy nothing if dead, as dead people couldn't help arresting other criminals and dismantling the opposing organizations completely.

They continued talking about their modus operandi, while Anna listened attentively to their words, in silence. They explained that the missions were only debriefed when the agent arrived on the site, verbally, to avoid leaking any important information. In the past, not only once one of the agents was a double agent, working for a group of enemies of state. They leaked the information to their partners, frustrating the whole operation and even causing the deaths of valuable guardians. That was why talking or personally handed letters made most of the communication between them.

Besides, the guardians had been disallowed to use their own equipment since a big blunder of one of the guardians. The man had the mission of arresting two terrorists that were blowing up computer systems in towns. He found the terrorists having lunch in a restaurant in a smaller town near Piata and broke into the restaurant discharging his machine guns on everybody, killing the two terrorists and thirty civilians. Anna cringed back at her seat after listening to that story. Someone without brains becomes very powerful and dangerous in possession of heavy weapons. It was enough to justify the fact that she was not given any weapon during her first mission. They went further and explained that it didn't mean she would not be provided with adequate equipment for each mission, resources, or direct help. As a full-fledged guardian, Anna would always be welcome at the guardian's headquarters, and they provided a vast array of resources for those willing to study, train, or research.

When they finished explaining all the particularities of her new job, she felt inclined to comment upon her disastrous mission, but the impression the two officers left about the job was so good that Anna finally convinced herself that being a guardian would not be a bad thing. It seemed to be an honorable job, and it was a great opportunity for the indecisive girl to fulfill her wishes by combining an occupation she had the talent to perform, and that looked professional enough to dissipate any sense of shame she had for being a mercenary hunter in the past. Then, she was given her Guardian credentials and a considerable sum of money, before being ordered to go back home and wait for further orders. Embarrassed, she thanked the officers and left, happy that the outcome of the meeting surpassed her most optimistic expectations.

Once again, at home, she waited for any message from the Guardian's HQ. A few days passed between her meeting at the headquarters and the message, though, so she had a lot of free time. While she was inspecting the pockets of the dress she was using during her first mission as a guardian, before sending it to the laundry, Anna found the card the man in strange garments had given her while she was waiting for the officer to share the information about the mission with her. She remembered the disastrous encounter and it should be enough for her to hope never meeting that man again. However, she was curious to learn more about that man who professed the same faith as hers. So, in one of the boring afternoons, her curiosity overcame her shyness, and she decided to take the risk of visiting the place appointed in the card.

The place was not very far from the inn she was residing, so she took a short walk during a pleasant sunny afternoon. Arriving at the address mentioned in the card, the blond guardian hesitated. For what she had read, her religion used to have very distinct temples, but the place she was in front of was just a small house, with nothing remarkable about it. Not even one symbol that indicated it was the House of the Lord. But her curiosity pushed her forward, so, not even noticing its intromission, she opened the door of the small house and entered.

Inside of the small house, there was a room with a few wooden benches, a small platform in the back, where rested a small table covered with white tablecloth and, painted on the back wall, symbols of her religion. There was a middle-aged woman on her knees over a wooden board in the back of one of the wooden benches. Some candles in candelabras hanging on the sidewalls dimly lighted the room. The eerie atmosphere of the room left a deep impression in the blonde hunter, who, for a few moments, felt paralyzed. She didn't know what to do or how to behave inside a temple, and she also feared that her sinful ways made her presence inside a holy house an offense. Although the temple didn't resemble the majestic buildings described in the books of history, Anna shunned inside the small room, as if the holy aura the temple seemed to bear rejected the darkness inside her heart.

Embarrassed, Anna tried to imitate the other woman, so she knelt over the wooden board of another bench and, clasping her hands together, muttered a silent prayer. Although Anna considered herself religious, being disconnected from people who professed the same faith as hers and from the regular church services made her feel as if she had never been truly religious. She started thinking of how mean and evil she had been, never trying to follow the teachings of her faith. It was not enough to know them; she had to live them. Therefore, she cried. She cried for never being a good daughter, never being a good woman. She wept in silence, begging for forgiveness, losing the notion of how much time have passed.

When she finally decided to go home, the other woman had already left, and there was no one inside the small temple but her. Visibly stricken, the blonde hunter walked slowly towards the exit, with her head down. It had been a painful experience, but somehow, she felt relieved, convinced that she should return there. Near the door, she noticed a metal board with small pieces of paper held by magnets. By reading them, Anna discovered at which days and hours the celebrations were held.

By taking a mental note about them, she left, feeling the inner peace she longed so much for. She was feeling closely attuned to the spiritual plan. Her soul had started a revolution inside herself, bringing contradictory feelings to her mind. From its depths, her soul was begging for a new beginning, a new chance to start it again, trying to do the things the right way, with no regrets, no blame, and no traumas. Forgiving her for what have happened in the past and setting elevated goals to the future, knowing that she was capable of doing the things the right way according to her beliefs. And, above all, knowing that it depended only on her. With her hopes restored after a long period of suppression, Anna left the temple decided to return.

Before she could return there, though, another mission was assigned to her. She was sent a datapad letter, ordering Anna to be present at a small plaza in the outskirts of Zema the following day. The blonde girl was feeling uncommonly anxious about her next mission, but it was just her own negative feelings built over the expectation that the mission could be as absurd and dangerous as the last one. For her relief, this time, the things worked out perfectly.

On the following day, Anna arrived at the plaza at the appointed time. It didn't take long until an officer presented her what would be her task. A man had stolen personal data from thousands of people from the Mother Brain systems and was using the personal information to blackmail random individuals whose records had left some opening that could be exploited. Most of the cases were about people who cheated their spouses, or performed unethical activities in their business, harming their partners. Mother Brain had extensive records of every person's interaction with any of the automated systems. With those records, that hacker could discover that a certain person had been to a motel with someone else other than his wife, or that one of the partners of a company was holding secret meetings with a customer, or even about people who skipped classes at the university or working days to do leisure activities.

The authorities were not particularly concerned about the blackmailing, since the criminal usually demanded low amounts of money from his victims. From what the investigation had learned, he seemed enjoy more causing panic in his victims than receiving the money. However, if any of the victims discovered that he discovered aspects of their privacy through records largely available on government database, it could cause a stir and people could rebel against the authorities about the violation of their privacy on such personal aspects. Therefore, she was assigned the mission not only to arrest the guy, which would have been easy, but also to discover where the man stored the records, so the proofs that sensitive information about some individuals had leaked from the Mother Brain could be erased.

This time, provided with substantial information about the case, Anna judged correctly that the crook was no professional criminal; therefore, it would be easy to fool him. She went to his house and pretended to be a university student who was fooling her parents by spending all the money they sent her in parties instead of paying the university installments, and she would do everything for him if he didn't tell her parents about that. The hacker had blackmailed so many people that he hadn't even kept a record of whom he was blackmailing, so he believed her. Stimulated by the prospects of taking advantage of a helpless girl, the man opened the hidden locker where he stored the portable computer with the records to show her that his threat was serious. Seconds later, Anna had him handcuffed and the illegal records in her possession. She acted so quickly that the man only began understanding what had happened to him when he was inside the police department, facing the county sheriff.

Satisfied with the outcome of her mission, Anna started enjoying her position as a guardian. The subsequent missions proved her that her new job required more brains than guts, and many times she was able to accomplish her mission without any use of violence. Even when a violent approach was needed, she learned how to ambush and overpower groups of bandits. Had she known those techniques before, she would have been able to try to do something to prevent the deaths of her loved ones. But the blonde guardian was trying to think less about what could have been and more about what could be. No matter how traumatizing had been her past, she had to move on.

Besides, to help her plans of becoming more positive about life, she had found support in the temple she started to visit regularly. A few days after the second mission, she visited the temple during one of the celebrations. The celebration was about to begin, so Anna shyly took a seat in the last row. It was supposed to be a remarkable experience for her, the first time she would participate in a cult. However, she was taken aback by the image in front of her eyes. The radiant green eyes were positively his. The man who had humiliated her in the lake was conducting the celebration, wearing ritual garments. The blonde hunter was feeling so uncomfortable that her first reaction was to abandon the temple. However, she resisted that urge of leaving, and tried to concentrate on his words, though her mind switched between the meaning of his words and her negative feelings towards him. As the celebration was finished, Anna was ready to leave, relieved that she had been able to stay despite of her feelings, but she was interrupted by the priest.

"Oh, if it is not the girl from the lakeshore! You did come!"

He greeted her warmly, but to Anna's ears, it sounded bad, as if his remark had been filled with sarcasm, with the purpose of humiliating her again. Anna reacted looking down, and staying in silence. As she didn't say anything, he placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it lightly, adding "I'm glad to see you here."

Anna blushed. His gentle voice now transpired sincerity, and, somehow, she was feeling comfortable. She didn't dare to stare at him, though, because she was feeling a blend of shame and anger.

He forced a laugh. "I was afraid I had scared you that day. Maybe I've not used the best approach."

Anna silently nodded. She was hurt, but willing to forgive him. After all, her religion was based on forgiving the other people's mistakes. And, examining her conscience, the priest had been right all the time; some of her actions were totally contrary to what her religion taught as right. As much as she could come up with excuses for her behavior, she knew that there was no excuse for always reacting violently, in a deliberate fashion. She wanted to change, but that would never happen as she refused to take the first step, and try. If the frustration of trying and failing hurt, refraining from doing anything was either lack of perspective or plain cowardice. That, Anna could not accept.

"Well, I hope to see you again soon." The brown-haired priest smiled. "If you feel like talking with someone, you can count on me."

Anna didn't answer, and the priest didn't wait for one. He was able to read in her countenance that she was willing to return. Instead of leaving, the blonde guardian remained for a while, praying, and then left. She was feeling an inner peace she had never felt since her parents were murdered.

During her next visits to the temple, Anna has gradually erased those bad impressions about the priest from her mind, and left her excessive shyness behind. After some visits, the priest was able to exchange a few words with her, always trying to be friendly. The man was experienced in dealing with people. As a priest, he was particularly interested in helping her. From what he had observed, Anna needed some sort of spiritual help. As much as she tried to hide her inner demons, and her natural beauty, grace and charm were obvious distractions; her eyes had an unnatural coldness that evidenced her tormented mind. He did his best to regain Anna's trust during their brief encounters, but it was not that difficult, as she was trying to view life under a better perspective. It didn't take long for her to allow him to become her confident, and on his authority and knowledge, he helped Anna in her mission of overcoming the demons of her past.

Her frequent visits to the temple and her continuous successes in the subsequent missions as a guardian were enough to soothe her pains and give her new meaning to her life. She was given her dignity back after a period of turbulence, which had led her to do some things she regretted doing. She could be the Anna she would always be, cold, collected, rational, but not cruel and psychopathic. She could make justice without murdering unnecessarily. She could start making emotional connections with other humans without the risk of seeing the tragedy unfold before her eyes once more. Like the priest, whose company was agreeable, but she was not so emotionally dependent on him as she had been on her parents and siblings, Sarah, and then Lizzie.

Anna finally was able to feel that her life had been steered to the right track again. She had a faint hope that one day she would be able to look back and see that, despite of her tragedies; her life had not been a complete waste. And maybe she would be able to smile again one day.


	10. Crushed by Evil

Things went well for Anna during some time. The missions as a guardian had been successfully accomplished and her efforts were rewarded both in position inside the guardian's hierarchy and financially. After arresting 10 criminals, Anna was elevated from Junior Guardian to Guardian Rank I position, indicating that her career was developing quickly. Besides, executing the missions had been fulfilling; she learned both through knowledge and experience, and, above all, her mind was in peace.

Her personal life was also developing, albeit slowly. Although she didn't consider the priest a personal friend, he had been of much help, making her feel more connected to her religion, strengthening her faith, and showing her a way of living the past behind and building a future according to her beliefs. He often encouraged her by stressing the notion that being a law enforcer or a military didn't mean that she had to be cruel or violent. And it helped her keeping her bloodlust at the bay for a while.

However, as the blonde guardian advanced in the guardian ranks, she also learned things she hoped they were not true. Her honeymoon with the guardians was soon over, as she was allowed access to more information. One thing that annoyed her was that, despite of apparently dealing with every sort of crimes and gangs, but there was an overall silence about the hunter gangs. Although Anna was not a hunter anymore, she was still aware that there were many hunters committing crimes. Besides the overall silence about their criminal activities in the press, the Guardians Headquarters seemed to suppress information about their illegal activities on purpose. During her visits to the library in order to research about the criminals she was supposed to arrest, Anna became astonished with the amount of detailed information that was available for them, both recent and historical, including lots of information about secret criminal organizations and even information about some illegal dealings inside the government. However, she had never seen anything regarding those hunter gangs, in a stark contrast with the increasing rumors spread amongst the populace. It was not something that worried Anna at that moment, but it was the very beginning of a succession of events that would ultimately lead Anna to leave the organization.

Another remarkable mission during her time as a guardian was when she was entitled to arrest a group of criminals, Palmans and Motavians, who had hacked some data from the Mother Brain. Anna was never pleased to receive that kind of mission because crimes against Mother Brain were dealt with disproportionate force when compared to other crimes the blonde guardian considered much more serious, like murder, drug trafficking, rape, kidnapping, and even terrorism. When dealing with hackers or other people who posed a threat to Mother Brain systems, Anna's superiors always allowed her to kill everyone involved, which was highly discouraged in any other kind of mission. The girl, however, was cold and self-centered enough to not fall for the temptation of solving those kind of missions the easy way, always trying to use the standard procedure of using non-violent methods in order to accomplish her goal.

That time, it was not different. The order was to arrest or kill everybody involved in the hacking incident, but as a twist of fate, as the mission advanced, Anna ended being trapped in a sand hole together with the leader of the gang. With time enough to talk with him and discover his motives while looking for a way out of the natural trap, Anna let the criminal break the barrier that she created between her and the criminals. Somehow, she felt that the hacker was not just a common criminal, so she listened to his story and ultimately concluded that the man, although committing an illegal act, was not doing anything morally wrong. Therefore, she let him escape, even if it meant a failure in her record. Anna, who had never held a firm belief in the strictness of the law before, decided to act according to her conscience. As a reward, she got an undesired kiss from the hacker, and the much-desired peace of mind, resting assured that she had done the best thing for the situation.

With her confidence in the organization a bit shaken, Anna continued performing with the guardians, although she was not that obedient officer she used to be in the past. Anna became a bit rebellious and started acting on her own sometimes. Her reputation as a skilled guardian allowed her to work on her own, as long as she didn't explicitly violated the laws. The guardians were very strict to the newcomers, but the severity of their rules was relaxed as the agents advanced in the organization ranks. Many experienced guardians were allowed to work out of their jurisdiction, or even to perform some unauthorized arrests and killings if they could prove the arrested or murdered men were dangerous criminals.

Attracted by this relative freedom, it didn't take long for Anna to start arresting people who were committing crimes out of the missions she was assigned to. As the biomonster invasion spread through the whole Motavia, more and more people turned to crime to compensate for the loss of their homes, jobs, and social security payments. It was not rare to catch people committing smaller crimes, and Anna was always ready to bring justice to those who defied the law; although she was aware their situation was not good, it was not by robbing other people and spreading the chaos that they would solve the new Motavian social problem. The leniency of justice in dealing with minor crimes only paved a way for occasional misdemeanors by isolated citizens to turn into heinous crimes, backed by real crime organizations. Then, what should be just a minor social problem became a major worry, with daily tragedies and uncountable lives lost to crime.

During one of these unofficial missions, Anna crossed the path of a very peculiar burglar. The girl, who was stealing jewels from a luxurious jewelry, was not a common criminal. A girl not much older than her had sneaked into the store in order to steal some expensive jewelry, but Anna used her ambush tactics to arrest her when she least expected it. The green-haired thief, named Shir, turned out to be the daughter of a very rich and important family from Piata, and she was stealing the jewels as a vengeance for being snubbed by the storeowner. The strange girl proved the truth of her intent by throwing such a large amount of meseta bills she carried with her on the floor that they probably would be enough to pay for most of the jewels she was stealing.

Puzzled, Anna was inclined to let Shir go, provided she returned all the jewels back. The girl agreed, but she was feeling so humiliated that she attacked Anna from behind when Anna ordered her to disappear. However, Anna was already a very experienced fighter by that time, and no matter how quick the green-haired girl was, Anna overpowered her. Attacking an officer was enough to grant a swift death for the attacker, but, in the last moment, Anna saw genuine despair and regret in the little thief's eyes, so she let her go, because she judged the Shir to be a harmless spoiled brat with a good heart deep inside, not a criminal. That episode made Anna start judging the character of the criminals she was entitled to arrest more by her feeling than the information found on their records.

Coupled with those events, one day, while returning from a nightly errand, Anna overheard a discussion happening a few blocks away from the inn she was living in. She became worried with the harshness of the yells. Although she was too far from the origin of the discussion to understand what was happening, both her sense of duty and her curiosity made her take a detour from her path and investigate the uproar.

While heading towards the noise source, the blonde guardian felt a chill down her spine, and the terrible feeling of having already been into that same situation in the past. She couldn't remember, however, what had happened in the situation that looked similar to the one she was passing through, and neither if it had been real or just a dream. That made her feel a bit anxious, and Anna had to make an extra effort to prepare herself for what she was about to face.

As she drew near, the first impression was confirmed. The incident seemed to be a fierce quarrel, and not just a drunkard brawl. Anna's heart started racing inside her chest as she thought about the possibility of being haunted by the ghosts of the past. There was a considerable probability that the event was being caused by the people she loathed most. The blonde guardian knew that it would be the biggest threat to the temporary tranquility she had been able to maintain for the past few months. If the guardians ignored it, or pretended that they didn't see the criminal activities of some hunter gangs, Anna couldn't. She knew that she could conveniently pretend that she had not seen or heard about that, and maintain an apparent peace, but how would she sleep knowing that there are evil people stealing, kidnapping, raping, and killing freely? Her sense of justice was above all, and ignoring their actions was not an option. Even if it meant going back to the days she wished to forget.

Anna arrived at the alley were the commotion was taking place just in order to see two teenagers, who were begging for mercy, be clubbed to death by four hunters. The gruesome scene made Anna's blood boil inside her veins, and, infuriated, she didn't even bother to try to understand what lead the scoundrels disguised as hunters to commit those atrocities. In a matter of seconds, slashers flew in the air, and the warm and crimson fluid pouring from the disemboweled bodies of four hunters satiated the bloodthirsty vicious guardian.

Desperate, the blonde guardian darted towards the two teenagers, but they seemed to be beyond help. Even so, she called the emergency, but left before help arrived. Feeling a mixture of guilt and satisfaction, Anna realized that the decision she had taken was unavoidable. She had suffered so much in the hands of death that the only solution to prevent other Lizzies, other Richards, other Grigorys, Marias, Ivans, Tatyanas and Natashas was to stain her own hands with blood and eliminate everyone who dared to commit the greatest crime. Fighting fire with fire. It was terrible, but it had to be done. Someone had to step up and sacrifice herself in order to provide a better future for the others. Trying to make the things right wouldn't be enough. It was not enough for the two teenagers. So, Anna decided to be the double agent. Her soul was already beyond salvation, anyway. During the day, she would be the competent guardian, enforcing that the law was being respected. At night, she would be the counter-hunter, the one who would silently bring justice to all those criminals who considered themselves to be above the law. Killing the damned to preserve the innocent. Cold murder for cold murder. Morally wrong, but was there another way of preserving the lives of the innocent?

There was another answer, Anna knew it well. However, it didn't seem to be working. However, she could not dismiss her own beliefs. It caused her a lot of grief, because, every time she killed someone, she went through long periods tormented by regret. Especially because she had been visiting the temple very often. And, meanwhile, she developed a close relationship with the priest. Closer than it would be adequate. Although she didn't consider him much of a friend, it was unavoidable that, given his superior position over her, his proselytism, and his apparent irreproachable morals, she eventually fell for him. It only served to make her doubts, woes, and grief stronger and harder to cope with.

Anna's continuous success in her missions made her climb up the guardians ranks, and it opened up many doors for her. More prestige meant more resources available. It had fit perfectly her plans of eliminating criminal hunters silently. She gained access to a wide variety of intelligence reports and she was able to discover and dismantle not only local hunter gangs, but also gangs from faraway places. Her reputation and impressive records inside the organization also granted her immunity for her illegal operations, so she could carry on the eliminations undisturbed.

For almost a year, Anna had lived this double life. Although she had been mostly successful in both accomplishing missions and eliminating hunters, her emotional condition degraded continuously, reaching a point of rupture. She was everything no one would ever expect from an intelligent, pretty, and attractive eighteen-year-old woman. Instead of hunting boys in the parties, looking for kisses and some intimate and pleasurable moments, she was searching her own ruin in the dark alleys, hunting, ambushing, and mercilessly slaying evil men. Although it was satisfying at first, like frivolous romantic adventures were for many girls at her age, instead of the emptiness those girls felt in the aftermath of their adventures, Anna felt profound regret and grief for staining her hands with the fresh blood of her brothers.

The feelings of grief and regret were enhanced by her relationship with the priest. As her confessor, he was aware of her illegal killings, and he always reprimanded her actions. At first, he tried to be supportive, believing in Anna's genuine displays of regret. He was deeply moved by how troubled she became whenever she had to kill someone, be it on an official mission or on one of the hunts she conducted in secret. The priest stressed the notion of not answering a crime with another crime, and that, if killings were sometimes unavoidable, she had to do her best to never take the initiative of murdering anyone else, and to resort to violence only as the last resource, to prevent a bigger harm from happening. However, as much as Anna tried, she was always so incensed by the reports of hunters abusing, harming, and killing innocent people that she was not able to control herself and ended up pursuing and eliminating the hunters. After a few months, the priest realized that Anna didn't mean to change her ways; not even once she seemed to have really fought against the urge of killing someone else. He was no fool and didn't believe anymore her emotionally drenched confessions that used to move his spirit and make him try his best to comfort and help her, only to know that, at the same time, she was carefully studying and planning ambushes to kill hunters. Besides, the priest had noticed something different about her behavior through the way she stared at him, the tone of her voice when talking to him, and her sudden yearn for physical contact.

Gradually, the priest, feeling troubled, became colder to Anna. His sermons became harsh, and he started limiting his time with her. The results, though, were worse than he expected. As he tried to distance himself from the blonde guardian, she clung more and more to him, seeking his advice and help more often, and even in inappropriate hours. Besides, her mood had a turn to worse, she became more sensitive, and the traumas of her past she was trying to fight against so bravely in the previous months were now dominating her. Anna couldn't stop talking about Lizzie, her parents, her siblings, and how she had been powerless to prevent their deaths, how she deserved to die in their places, how she was doomed to the fires of hell, how she suffered for having nothing to live for, how she was constantly depressed, how she had become a cold, lonely and loveless woman.

Although his religion mandated that he should not abandon anyone, the priest was tired of trying to support Anna. The more he reproached Anna's ungodly attitudes, the more she seemed prone to sin and then come to beg for forgiveness. After much thinking, he took a hard decision and waited for Anna's next visit.

One night, the blonde guardian eliminated a pair of hunters that was terrorizing people living near Oputa, through cold-blooded execution. Later, she regretted her unnecessary use of violence. Disturbed, she sought the priest's help early in the morning. By entering the temple, Anna noticed that something was wrong. The man seemed to be waiting for her, unlike every other occasion. She was always moved by his presence because he inspired her noble feelings that were forgotten when she was alone, researching information about criminals to eliminate. She felt that she needed him with her all the time. It would be the only way for her to change her ways, to abide to God laws and to live a peaceful and honored life. That was why she sought his company so often. But, that day, he was acting in a different way, and she noticed that. However, she didn't hesitate talking to him.

"Sir, I need to talk to you..."

"There will be no talking anymore, Anna." The priest coldly answered.

"Why?" The guardian was startled by his behavior. In the past, even when he reprimanded her, he did it in a compassionate manner.

"Because you always come here begging for forgiveness, but you don't mean it. Didn't you come to tell me you have murdered someone and now repents it?" He added, turning his back on her, and pretending not to be interested on her anymore.

"But my regret is genuine..." Anna, in a rare emotional moment, spoke her heart out. She saw the priest as someone who could save her from eternal damnation, so she had no secrets for him.

"No, you are not! You have never been, Anna!" His angry answer distressed the woman whose state of mind was very fragile. "You always swear to God that you will stop, only to return here with your hands stained with fresh blood. You have never meant to stop! You are just wasting my time, and making a fool of yourself trying to fool God."

The guardian listened, in silence, with her head down. She didn't have the courage to contradict the man, for she believed him to be superior than her. While a low voice, she begged him. "I promise that this time I will change, if you help me..."

"Enough!" The priest let out a scream that echoed through the temple walls. Anna shivered. Realizing that his tone was inappropriate for the place he was in, he added with a lower voice, but the same harshness. "You don't want to be helped. Please, Anna, don't ever come back again, you are not worthy of entering the House of the Lord."

"No!" Anna broke down in tears and threw herself to his feet, embraced his legs, then implored him to reconsider. "Give me another chance, please! What will I do without you to help me? Don't let me die, damned for all the time."

Anna was out of control, sobbing bitterly. Part of the priest's heart was giving up to her pleads, but he didn't believe the blonde guardian anymore. He knew that, for the sake of his own peace of mind, he had to do it. Anna was not only destroying herself, but also dragging him down with her. As much as he cared for her, he knew that if he didn't sever the ties with her briskly, there was a good chance that he would end involved with Anna in ways he never imagined. He couldn't deny that the beautiful blonde teenager emotionally clung to him was amusing, but that would not be right. That was not only forbidden, but also getting involved with her would mean getting involved indirectly with her sinful activities, and it would also be his ruin. The separation would be hard and painful, but there would not be any other way of saving his soul, for he was already tormented by all the sins he committed inside his mind.

The priest tried not to show any feelings towards the blonde guardian, knowing that indifference would work better than hate. However, her embrace became tighter, and with pleading eyes, she turned to him. "You don't know how important you are to me. I'd do anything for you..."

"Get away, evil woman!" The priest yelled, as he pushed her away with his leg. Though the movement was not violent, the guardian fell on her back and stayed paralyzed, crying. "Stop tempting me! I will not let you get hold of my soul, devil!" Then, turning back, he shouted aggressively. "If you want to fall, Anna, don't drag me down with you! Leave me now!"

Without reaction, the blonde guardian stayed prostrated, crying. Deep inside, she knew he was right. However, she could not help grieving the loss of her last hopes. She had been plagued by an idea for weeks, and her relationship with the priest was the only thing that prevented her from committing moral suicide. She was weak, unwilling to change her ways. She was fool enough to fall for the priest, knowing he was forbidden to have a romantic relationship with a woman. She was vain enough to pursue this forbidden relationship. She was evil enough to tempt the good-natured man to fall with her. Finally, she was selfish enough for trying to drag him down to the hell she was condemned to live in. The wicked guardian knew she was beyond salvation, but ultimately she had turned herself into a Lucifer's agent, by trying to reap souls to the eternal damnation. Maybe it had always been like that, and it would explain why everyone she dared to love ended dead. It was their salvation from her poisonous influence, her sinful ways that contaminated their souls. Or she had just been an innocent victim of fate, and God had made her carry a cross heavier than she could. Her sins were nothing compared to the woes she was forced to suffer. What would providence expect from her when all she had always loved had been forcefully taken from her? When everything she had ever learned from life was that there were evil men who would invade peaceful homes and brutally murder all its occupants? That there were men who would ambush and murder people who risked their lives to protect the innocent, and laugh at their corpses? That grown up men would club teenagers to death over frivolous issues? That people would try to rape her and murder her for nothing? That every women she had ever had some intimacy with, had known about men through violence, either attempted or consumed? Where were the prospects of a happy and peaceful life? Where were the magic teenage years, filled with adventures, discoveries, diversions, friendships, romances, pleasures, excitations, ecstasy, and bliss? In the books? On TV? In the mouths of the other people? Everywhere, but in her life? Was it a deliberate act from a cruel providence, which chose those who would be laughing and those who would be crying at the end of the day? Those who would have a blessed life and those who had been lost for all the eternity?

No, it had to end. She could not accept a God like that one. The God she believed in was a God of mercy, a God of love. She had been wrong all the time. Wrong in her attitudes, wrong in her considerations. The way she had behaved with the priest was shameful. She acted like a little girl, a stupid teenager. What was she expecting? Salvation through love, like one of those ridiculous fairytale characters, who wait passively for the enchanted prince to come riding a white stallion and saving them from all the evil. However, the salvation through love should come from inside. She was the one supposed to actively love the others, not waiting anything in return.

With nothing left to lose, Anna was determined to put her plan to work, and close the circle. That disgraceful life would finally come to an end. If there would be another one waiting for her, she didn't know, and she didn't care. Probably, there would be nothing left after that. However, she didn't care anymore. If death was the only way out, she was ready to take the utmost drastic measure. If eternal damnation was her fate, it would not make any difference. Wasn't her living in hell for the last eight years? Besides, after her last rays of hope were overcome by blackness, Anna died. There was not a heart inside her chest, a soul inside her flesh vessel. She was free to close that circle that gradually sucked all the humanity from her. Then, perpetual void. She would turn into a lifeless form, a writhing mass of evil. And it would be Anna's end. However, if she survived that ordeal, she would be able to start it again, as if the last eight years had been just a bad dream. Either was the case, one thing she was certain about: she had to get rid of the malefic influence her past tragedies brought her.

With murder in her heart and blood in her eyes, Anna returned to her room in the Inn she had been living for more than a year, packed her things, paid her bills, and left it for good. The innkeeper was surprised, but he didn't say anything because the blonde guardian was behaving like an automat. She showed no hints of humanity, no traces of feelings. Even less than the primitive attempts of artificial emotional intelligence programmed in the most basic robots. She was so scary that the innkeeper almost felt glad that she left. However, unlike her, he could not forget the feelings harvested through all that time towards the silent beauty-queen officer. They have never been close, but her simple ways made him feel sympathy for the lonely girl. So, as she signed the papers and left, never looking back to take a last grasp of the place that had been her home, the innkeeper could only feel sadness. Deep inside, he wished she would leave with a smile on her face.

The blonde guardian advanced like senseless robot through the streets. Nothing was enough to attract her attention. She had only one fixed idea in her mind. A terrible idea, fueled by feelings of vengeance. After all she had been through, she had decided that, to close the circle, she had to deal with her past tragedies. And the only way she found to deal with her past tragedies was to the only thing she knew how to do well. Armed with knowledge acquired through the guardians HQ extensive records, she learned interesting things about the people that destroyed her life. Some were already dead, but she was still able to carry out her plan. It would be her last act, she was sure about it, for it was the last thing left for her.

Anna had it all planned. She left an unsigned message addressed to people she didn't really know. After that, she took her belongings to an apparently abandoned warehouse. However, it was not the first time she had been there; there were some tools in the place, tools bought specially for the occasion. Inside the warehouse, the guardian prepared the place according to what she had planned, and waited patiently. She didn't know if or when the people she was expecting would come, but she was not worried about it. She had nothing else to do or care for. Be it days, weeks, or months, she would wait. If they never came, she wouldn't have wasted her time because she had forfeited her life, so time didn't exist anymore.

But they did arrive. Five men, armed to their teeth, broke into the building, carefully. Had they been cautious, they would never have trusted that message. However, their greed was far stronger than their good judgment. Even so, their experience had made them proceed carefully in their endeavor.

For their surprise, the warehouse was mostly empty, save for a blonde woman standing in the center of the building, with her back turned to them. The setting was so awkward that it screamed ambush. The group of armed men quickly understood that something was clearly wrong, so, as a protective device, all the five men aimed their guns at the head of the mysterious woman.

The woman should have noticed that they were inside the building, but she didn't seem to be concerned. That fact only added to their anxiety, and it didn't take long until the leader of the group yelled at her, with his voice drenched in tension "What are you doing? State your business or get out!"

Anna cringed at the sound of the familiar voice. She didn't expect to remember it so well, and the images of the day she heard that voice came back to her mind, lively. Moreover, she had learned through investigation that they had become hunters, just to terrorize civilians. Now, she despised them even more for that. The guardian, though, resisted its influence, and stayed in silence.

"Come on, spill it out! Otherwise we will kill you, and we mean it!" The leader of the group barked at Anna, aggressively, but his voice transpired fear.

Like a feral beast, the blonde guardian seemed to rejoice with their fear. Completely in control of the situation, Anna calmly started answering. "Hark, fellow hunters! Remember three years ago, in a warehouse like this one?"

"What do you mean by that?" The leader of the group was so nervous that the chances of he accidentally pulling the trigger were high.

"Three soldiers... a man, a boy, and a girl?"

"The pigs we killed?" One of the men answered promptly. All the members of the gang remembered that event, but none had held distinctive memories. The assailant hardly remembers his wrongdoings, and those men were not exceptions to that rule.

"What do you have to do with that, harlot? I'll kill you right away if you keep fooling with us!" The leader, who was visibly distressed, added angrily. He was on the verge of pulling the trigger.

"That day, there was a fourth soldier in the building." Anna added coolly. "And now it is the time for the payback!"

As Anna finished her sentence, all the men pulled the triggers of their rifles almost at the same time, but their bullets missed their marks. The guardian had quickly dodged them all, and then she was running at the speed of light through the large room. The gang members became desperate, because they weren't able to aim at her, causing them to shoot randomly, risking targeting themselves.

Laughing maniacally, the blonde guardian started throwing slashers in the air, in frantic movements. The slashers started hitting her opponents, knocking their guns down. As much as they tried, they were never able to recover their rifles, or to get hold of their revolvers, for it looked like there were ten Annas fighting against them.

In fact, Anna had planned that moment carefully, to make them suffer, and mostly, feel fear. The proud guardian, who had always kept her blades sharp, now had made them blunt on purpose. She wanted to hit her foes, but not to cut them to pieces. Besides, she was juggling four pairs of slashers, in an unprecedented performance, alternately hitting the gang members, not giving any of her foes three seconds of rest before being hit again. It didn't take long for one of the members, feeling desperate, try to run away. But Anna was prepared for that possibility, and aiming a slasher at the front wall, she activated the mechanism she had installed on the entrance, making a steel bar fall and shut the door tightly, moments before the man could reach safety.

The men, feeling helpless, tried to spread themselves through the battlefield, but to no avail. Anna moved fast as lightning, and her hit rate was over 90%. It didn't take long until, after several blows, mostly aimed to their legs, the gang members started to surrender to their fate. The girl had to be possessed by devil, for she didn't even blink while performing her sadistic ritual. The girl was frenzied, laughing maniacally while attacking them, screaming random sentences like "This one is for you, Lizzie!" There was nothing they could do against a formidable opponent like Anna.

When the first of Anna's foes fell, she darted towards him and handcuffed him so quickly that none of her opponents could take advantage of her interruption. Then, as she resumed the slashers massacre, one by one they fell. The leader was the last one to surrender, his pride didn't allow him to, but there was no way out of that nightmare. That possessed woman would never stop.

As soon as the blonde guardian noticed the fight was over, she turned to the second part of her plan. She dragged each one of the captured criminals to one of the five wooden posts she had cemented in the floor beforehand, forming a semi-circle. Some of the gang members tried to plead for mercy, but Anna seemed to be possessed by the devil, and her ears were deaf to their words. She seemed to become more and more excited as they got more and more scared. There was nothing they could do other than hope for a swift death, but judging by the wicked smile on her lips, it didn't seem to be a likely outcome.

After tying each man to one post, Anna dragged a large sack that was lying in one of the corners to the middle of the circle. Under the scrutiny of five pairs of terrorized eyes, the blonde guardian mechanically took out of it a hammer and five long nails. Then, she picked up the hammer and one of the nails and started walking towards one of the criminals. She walked very slowly on purpose, just to cause them more terror. She acted as if she wanted to torture them psychologically, but at the same time, she seemed to be in shock, and her movements didn't seem deliberate, as if her mind was being controlled by an evil force.

She stopped in front of the man, and coldly hammered the nail through his sternum, pinning him to the wood post he was tied to. The man screamed aloud, in pain, but Anna seemed to grin more and more at each of his screams. The nail seemed to be placed surgically, for it crushed his breastbone, but didn't hit any other significant tissues. Besides, it was so tightly inserted that it didn't allow the air to leak from the man's chest, allowing him to keep breathing regularly, although each breath was so painful that the victim would think twice before inhaling.

The other criminals were shocked by the cruelty of the blonde guardian. Besides, they knew they would be subjected to the same horrors as his companion. And Anna didn't leave them waiting for too long. In a matter of minutes, all the five gang members were pinned to their respective posts. Their screams of pain were so loud that one would cringe just to hear them from afar. However, the cold woman didn't seem to care. She seemed really devoid of life, possessed by devil. However, deep inside, it was to good old Anna, conscious of her actions, doing that on purpose. The tormented girl gave vent to all her suffering and frustration accumulated in the last few years, and decided to direct all her anger towards the men who had executed Lizzie and her friends in front of her eyes, traumatizing her for the rest of her life. However, the only thing Anna would achieve from that barbaric act was to traumatize herself even further. She thought she would be dead after finishing the men who caused her so much grief, so she didn't care about the possibilities of having to live the whole life with that blame upon her.

After waiting a while, rejoicing the criminals' suffering, Anna decided to carry out her plan. She had studied a lot in the past few months, and she discovered among the history records available in the Guardians' Library accounts of a certain kind of barbaric execution, named _Lingchi_. She was disturbed by the accounts of such an inhuman act because it went against all her beliefs. Even when she had to kill the criminals, she tried to do it swiftly. However, as rage, anger and grief took over her soul, the concept changed from terrifying to fascinating. The vivid retellings and sparse photographs added a mysterious and almost romantic aura to the cruel execution method from ancient times, gone for good. The information about it, however, was contradictory. Although people claimed that such barbaric acts were true, they were placed in lands she had never heard about, the Imperial China. The descriptions of those places did not make any sense, for there weren't places in the whole Algol Star System that could match its descriptions. However, the information was sorted under history in Mother Brain database parts the Algolians were allowed to access, and not under fiction or fantasy.

Anna could not know for certain, but she didn't care whether it was true or not. She was determined to carry out that execution method, no matter what. Besides, her religion was also under that same category as that historical account. To make matters worse, it was believed that the same religion was widespread through Algol in the past, whose churches bored the Holy Cross sign. So, unlike those historical records which seemed to have been originated with Mother Brain, her religion preceded Mother Brain. There were many aspects of Algol history that didn't make sense. No one has ever heard of places like Rome, Nazareth, Galilee or Jerusalem. Neither about people like Peter and Paul, Mary and John, Judas and Jesus, and yet, they believed, and guided their lives according to the teachings attributed to the latter. The teachings made sense; they inspired people to better, to live in peace. Anna's best moments were inspired by his words, teachings, and examples. Unfortunately, after the most recent setbacks in her life, the blonde guardian let the darkness of her soul extinguish all the light, and all those teachings were forgotten.

Then, Anna took her knife and walked towards the first man she had pinned to the wood post. Rejoicing with his terror expression, she took his left hand and sliced a small fragment of the tip of his index finger. The man let out a brief yell of pain, but then his attention returned to the nail across his chest, that was much more painful. Satisfied, the frenzied guardian walked towards the next man in the circle and repeated the process, then with each of the men. Every time, men grew more and more scared. As she ended the first round of slices, she returned to the first man and sliced another fingertip, doing the same with each man in sequence.

Deaf to their screams and pleads for mercy, Anna continued slicing their bodies very slowly. She wished to provide them a very slow death, to pay for all the years she had suffered because of what they had done to Captain Stevens, her mentor, Richard, her only true sweetheart, and Lizzie, her best friend and the person she loved most in her life. First, she made several cuts to their hands, and then slowly sliced parts of their feet. Then, she concentrated on superficially removing parts of their skins and larger muscles, always acting carefully not puncturing, or severing any large vein. Concentrating on non-lethal wounds, she removed large parts of their biceps, triceps, and quadriceps, leaving the flesh and bones exposed. Then, she followed to remove the muscles of their chests, leaving their ribcage exposed. Their organs were visible from outside, and the sight made the men completely shocked. However, Anna wanted them alive and conscious for the longest time possible. To add to their horrors, she made a pile of their removed body parts in the center of the circle, so they could see gradually how much of their bodies had been removed, and remain conscious of how crippled they were. From time to time, she would throw salt of vinegar in their wounds, and laugh at their contorting expressions of pain.

The men, feeling helpless, screamed their lungs out, hoping someone would hear them and end that torture session. Despite being heavily crippled, they still hoped to get their bodies clone in case someone came in their help. But, even if it was not possible, it would be better to have a merciful soul to deliver them a deadly blow and put an end to all their suffering. It was useless to try to make the possessed woman to stop; they could see the devil in her eyes. How they regretted having executed those soldiers! If the pain, the suffering, and the certainty of death was not enough, the blonde demon kept torturing them psychologically, shouting at them sentences like "That one is for Lizzie!", "How do you like to be killed?", "That is what I call a work of art!"

The barbaric ritual lasted for hours, but as much as Anna wanted to keep it going perpetually, the criminal's organisms could not stand the constant aggressions for too long. After most of the big muscles were removed, she resumed cutting their limbs and extremities, bit by bit. However, the slow blood loss now amounted to a significant quantity, forming pools under their feet, and the men gradually entered in a state of shock. The screams were replaced by low moans, and then they lost their conscience. After that, it didn't take long for them to expire, finally being freed from the horrific torture they were subjected.

Anna had a mental breakdown meanwhile, and although she hadn't stop her bloody ritual in devil's honor for a long time after the men were dead, inside her mind, she was suffering more than the five men together. Despite the appearances, she had never been possessed by any evil force; Anna did it all through her freewill. And, although her exterior showed a woman completely satisfied with what she was doing, internally, a huge battle consumed her soul. She was not taking pleasure in torturing and killing the men responsible for the death of her best friend. The vengeance was unfulfilling. Instead, the realization that she was far more abominable than any of those criminals she had killed made she suffer so much that tears washed her cheeks and clothes. Every movement of her body, every cut she made, every insult she proffered, was a battle lost. A battle the good Anna she wanted to be lost to the evil Anna she turned to be.

When there was nothing left to do, Anna went to the opposite corner of the room, to look at what she had done. However, instead of seeing five dismembered bodies hanging in wood poles, over pools of blood, with expressions of horror in their faces, and a large pile of body parts, like a human butchery, the blonde guardian, exhausted, saw the image of a long-haired man, with a sad expression on his face, asking her "Anna, what have you done?"

That face she had never seen before transpired so much serenity and love that Anna was overwhelmed by her own feelings of grief, sorrow, and repent. Unable to keep standing, the blonde guardian, who moments before looked like a possessed juggernaut, unstoppable in her cruel actions, demoniac on her behavior, feel on her knees, sobbing. She lay down, and assumed a fetal position, weeping like a young child. The conscience of her acts flooded her mind, leaving her in shock. Gradually, the images in her retina faded to black, and her sanity had been demolished by the discovery of all the evil that lay inside her heart that she could not even rejoice that the so long waited death had come to finally reap her tortured soul.


	11. One Step Into the Light

A loud explosion. Big Bang. The beginning of a new universe. It took Anna some time to understand what happened. With a loud hum inside her head, the girl's mind was in an undefined state as the images began forming into her retinas. Soon, the conscience of the truth, which she considered to be the greatest tragedy in his life, brought back her sense of reasoning. She was alive. It took more than her wish to die. She had forgotten that the One she often ignored on purpose was above her. She had to submit to His desires, resigned, and thank Him for the grace of living. It was Him, and only Him, who could decide whether she should go, or remain, carrying the memories of her actions with her for all the eternity. Obviously, providence had chosen to contradict her wishes once more, but, for the first time, she understood. That was what she deserved. She had never paid back hate with love, so she deserved to be doomed forever, haunted by the images of her crimes. It was plain clear why her life had always been a succession of tragedies. Life was like a school for the soul, she existed to learn how to exert her godly facet while facing the challenges of that tormented world. But every time she had been called to prove that she had learn the most basic lessons, the darkness of her heart dominated her, and she had never been able to pass the test. Then, she was condemned to keep repeating the same class over and over again, until she finally learned the lesson, or her teacher gave up on her. They say God never gives up on any of His sons, and, Anna, as much as she tried and seemed determined to change, was unable to resist the impetus of

making justice with her own hands. It meant she was condemned for all the eternity, and maybe that overwhelming sorrow and that feeling of emptiness were already part of what they called eternal damnation.

The girl stood up and stayed for a while staring blankly at what she had done. The scene was horrible, not even the horror movies had portrayed anything that gruesome. Blood and rotten human flesh scattered everywhere, insects eating the remains of the five men she had brutally murdered. But those images failed to make a deep impression on the guardian's devastated mind, for they were just a drop in the ocean of the staunchly vivid images of the events that had caused that outcome.

Almost automatically, Anna started walking towards the back of the warehouse, where there

was a partially deactivated restroom. All she wanted was to get rid of all that blood that covered her body. She tore open her clothes and used all the water that was left to wash away the blood. Due to the long time of abandonment, the water was dirty, but the blonde guardian was not the least worried with hygiene; she wanted to get rid of everything that reminded her of the most evil act she had ever committed. She knew that it was not enough to wash away the memories of the act itself, and that her attempt of closing the circle was a great failure because it didn't help her forget about the tragedies of her past. Instead, it was just another tragedy for her to carry till her last days.

After washing the blood away, Anna took her old blue soldier suit and wore it. The suit was a bit tight on her chest and hips because in the last for years she had grown more curvaceous. However, she was hardly worried about her appearance. She had nothing left to do, nowhere to go, no ideas of what to do next. If her perfect vengeance plan had a failure, it was the fact that she didn't have any idea of what to do after she was finished. She counted on death, but she was a big coward when it came down to finishing her own life. It was her hypocritical way of dealing with her beliefs. Suicide was forbidden, and she would never commit it; homicide was also forbidden, but she have never thought twice before killing someone. The fact that all the people she murdered were criminals was not sufficient to atone her sins, and she was aware of that. She had to live with the guilty, and, unable to end her own life, she was supposed to live with that guilty for a long time.

Anna picked up some of her belongings and left, not even bothering turning off the lights or closing the warehouse door. If she were to be arrested, she would gladly confess her crimes. She knew that, being a rank III guardian, and having murdered proven criminals, chances were high that she would only receive a reprimand for the flamboyant method she used to deal with them. But, after what she had done, she didn't feel that she had emotional conditions of keep becoming a guardian, as if nothing had happened. In fact, her emotional conditions were almost nullified by then. She was so broken that it was difficult for the blonde girl to get a good grasp of the reality. In her mind, the impressions that came through her senses were either blurred or distorted. There was a

short-circuit in her mind, and her actions didn't correspond to her thoughts anymore.

As she left the building, it was very late, and there were almost no one in the streets. Anna had lost the sense of time while she was inside the warehouse, so she didn't know how many days have passed since she had ambushed Lizzie's murderers. It didn't matter, for she had no appointments in her schedule. Everything she had in her mind was to roam in the streets, without a destination, waiting for something to happen. She had no wishes of controlling her life anymore.

Walking like a stoned junkie, Anna barely could make any sense of what was happening on her surroundings. Her mind was so devastated that she seemed to be battling the hallucinations caused by an acid trip to get some grasp of reality. A blonde and gorgeous girl wearing a dress too short, walking down the dark alleys late at night, stoned, was not such a rare occurrence in large cities like Zema, so she probably would go undisturbed. Besides, if the need arose, she still had a boomerang stuffed into her backpack, and she was certain that, even in that state, she would be able to counter any threat.

After a while, the blonde guardian saw herself in front of a wall. Lights flickered constantly, stimulating her retinas in a disorderly way. The images and sounds were confusing to her. She was not aware that she was standing by a large synthetic led screen installed in front of an electronics store. "...only fifty hundred meseta..." Anna had no idea of what she was doing there or where she should go. "...warm and sunny, occasional showers at evening. Minimum temperature of 70F..." That strange feeling, of being completely lost, enhanced by the notion of having no destination, was unacceptable. She was still alive, and she should not give up like that. "... Palman governor scheduled a visit to Parolit on tuesday to discuss the restoration of interplanetary trade..." As much as she tried, she would not be able to live the rest of her life pretending she didn't care. Her mind was devastated, but still, Anna was completely healthy. "... analysis on the explosives used in Arima by terrorists indicated that the dynamite was of exclusive use by army..." She couldn't give up life by giving it up only spiritually. All her strength and vitality, all her body, senses and instincts were still working perfectly well. They could still be used for good or for evil. "...wheat prices skyrocketed in Palma. Local authorities are enforcing food factories to replace wheat for other ingredients in order to keep food prices in control..." As much as she hated to admit it, Anna knew that being good or evil only depended on her. Part of her wanted to die, burying once and for all the memories and the subsequent feelings the tragic events of her past had built; part of her still wanted to succeed, to prove herself worthy the last chance, to atone for her sins, to mend her mistakes. "...more about the Climatrol case in a few minutes..." The purest and truest wishes of her soul were still extant; Anna still longed for being a good woman, a helpful worker, a good friend, a good wife and mother. "...Suelo's chocolate and sweets. 1000 years sweetening your life..." If only she was not condemned to eternal damnation, she could use the last events to finally put a stone on her past and move forward. "...Duke Casba & Sons pianos: Maestro Ustvestia's first choice..." If there was still a chance, would she be strong enough to resist the evil influence? Would she make the light conquer the darkness of her heart? "... agent Rolf Landale and his team returned to Paseo after a brief visit to Zema while investigating the Climatrol incident..." If only there was a way, that time Anna would not fail...

"Come back, prodigal daughter!"

"What?" Anna screamed, confused, frightened. That voice seemed to come from inside her head, unlike the noise that came from outside, which was partly filtered by her broken mind.

"Come back, prodigal daughter!"

The voice repeated again. As Anna looked at the led panel, she saw a pixelated image of the same face she had seem after she had finished her last execution. The girl became so disturbed that she fell on her knees, holding her head in her hands, as if she was under severe pains. She started sobbing copiously. An intense fear dominated her mind. Somehow, she knew it was not a byproduct of her madness. So, why did He start talking to her? She didn't deserve that, she was not worthy. She was the last person alive to deserve that.

Frightened, the girl stayed weeping, in the loneliness of the night. A long time had passed before she finally recovered her will to keep walking. She still seemed to be in the same trance as before, but something had changed. Just by looking, no one could tell what had happened, but that Anna was not the Anna who left the warehouse. Like a tank, the blonde guardian advanced through the streets, unstoppable, trampling every obstacle that appeared in her way. She didn't seem to know what she was doing, or where she was going. But one thing was for certain: Anna was not completely at loss like before. Under the impression of the mysterious appearance, she had something in her mind.

After a few minutes, walking through a twisted path that didn't make any sense; a tortured course where she seemed to take just to prolong her suffering, the blonde guardian finally stopped in front of a building. Despite the hour, the doors were open. The girl sighed, and hesitated. Maybe her illogical twists and turns had the purpose of buying time in order to make up her mind. Since the meeting with the mysterious image, Anna's state of mind was gradually improving. While she was still shaken, she didn't seem to be disconnected from reality anymore. All her troubles came from weighing the possibilities of succeeding or failing. She seemed inclined to answer the call, and her suffering was due to fear of not being able to sincerely do what she was asked to do. The past was still too fresh, the blood too fresh on her hands. There was no place for trying anymore: either she did or she didn't. Her devastated mind was a testimony of the severity of her dilemma.

Entering the building briskly, Anna didn't notice, but her sudden entrance scared the young woman at the counter. The pink-haired girl almost screamed, in terror. She was alone in the small room, that had just the counter where she stood, two chairs for people waiting their turn in case there was a line, and a steel booth. The light was so intense inside the booth that one could not keep staring at the glass window for more than a few seconds.

When the girl realized it was a woman, she sighed in relief. But her safety feeling lasted just a few moments. Anna put the money on the counter by hitting it, noisily. Without looking at the girl, she barked "Paseo!", and walked towards the steel both. Flabbergasted by the teenager dazzling behavior, the girl in the counter soon noticed that the benefits of obeying Anna's orders silently far outweighed the urge of asking her questions or telling her that the teleport process cost sixty meseta, and not five-hundred. The girl valued too much her teeth to risk them over such a triviality. Anna's military attire, and the thickness of her arms were reason enough for the clerk to stay quiet. Besides, Anna's bloodshot eyes and frenzied countenance where the last detail to convince her to program the teleport equipment to transport that woman wherever she wanted to go.

Anna was aware of her thwarting behavior, but she had no desire of acting in a different fashion. That was her first contact with someone else after the disturbing events which had destroyed the remains of her sanity, and everything she hoped for was to make that interaction a non-interaction. She knew that, in the fragile state her corrupt mind was, it would take just a word to make her have the poor attendant's skull crushed under her boots, and that was something she didn't want to do at that moment. Looking down, Anna pondered about the future that waited her. It was not the first time she would use the teleport machine, as it was the standard transportation mean between large cities. She wondered if it was possible for her to answer the call as she faded out in the teletransporter, her molecules dissolved, and with that, all her sins, traumas and tragedies. Then, when she materialized on the other side, Anna would be clean, pure, innocent again, like the ten-year-old dreamy girl she used to be. Back when she was beautiful, her soul was pure, not tainted by evil. Starting from the scratch, learning how to be a good woman by looking at the girl she used to be.

However, Anna knew that it would not come to pass. It would take her months, years, maybe

all the eternity for her to change her ways and redeem herself from all the mistakes she had made. As the booth door opened for her to get inside, she hoped that, at least, the first part of her reverie could become true, disappearing in the blackness of the night, forever.

As Anna took one step into the light, the only thing in her mind was the image of that benevolent man calling her back to His Kingdom of Love. And a warm feeling invaded her soul as her molecules faded out inside the teleport booth.


End file.
